


Twice Avengers

by TerribleWriterNayeon



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: AU, Ant Sana, Captain Jihyo, Domestic Fluff, Dr Strange Mina, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Hawkeye Tzuyu, I just love Minayeon, I wrote this because I was sad, Im Nayeon-centric, Iron Man Nayeon, Mild Language, Nayeon is cocky but Mina keeps her grounded, Some angst?, Spider Chaeyoung, Swearing, Thor Jeongyeon, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Twice Avengers, Twice Avengers AU, Wasp Momo, light Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22556146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerribleWriterNayeon/pseuds/TerribleWriterNayeon
Summary: Nayeon is grumpy, Mina likes to push buttons, and there's a levitating cloak, also a large threat looms over Earth and more importantly Nayeon's girlfriend.OrA Twice Avengers AU where Nayeon and Mina are hopelessly in love.
Relationships: Chou Tzuyu/Son Chaeyoung, Hirai Momo/Minatozaki Sana, Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina, Kim Dahyun/Park Jisoo | Jihyo, TWICE Ensemble/Everyone
Comments: 18
Kudos: 156





	1. Fluff

Nayeon sat in the darkness of her lab with the only source of light being the the monitor that showed calibrations of her new prototype suit she was test running. She sat tapping at the screen reconfiguring settings and changing 

“Friday. Let’s try using a lighter material for the suit, something a bit more breathable and fluid. I think the R&D team has something labeled under project S. Let’s try that. Then run the numbers and give me the results.” Nayeon says barely gazing at the screen knowing the answer as she’s already ran the numbers in her head, instead she plays with a screwdriver while waiting for Friday’s answer.

“Yes Nayeon. I’ll run them right away. Preliminary scans look good, the new suit should fit what Ms. Son requested. Another success Ms. Im.” 

“Thanks! I know. Just wanted to check my work. Thanks Friday.” Nayeon replies a cheeky grin on her face.

“Of course Nayeon.”

Nayeon leaned back and tossed the screwdriver on her desk. She was exhausted now, she spent the whole day working on this damn suit for Chaeyoung or widowmaker or whatever she called herself. She felt her eyelids get heavy as sleep was about to take her, the quiet hum of her computer running in the background serving as just the right amount of white noise to put her to sleep. 

As she shut her eyes and felt herself dozing off she hears the sound of whirring sparks knows what’s coming. As she opens her eyes she spots sparks of reddish orange forming a circle in the middle of her lab. She grumbles and rubs her eyes before sitting up waiting with a less than pleasant mood that her sleep was disturbed.

A girl with bangs and a gaudy necklace hanging on her neck with a cloak that seemed a size too big for her appeared out of the portal. Turning her eyes and smiling at an annoyed Nayeon.

“You know you can knock right? Or use the door and the passcode like a normal person?” Nayeon says gruffly. 

“And where’s the fun in that when I can magically appear out of thin air and be welcomed by my girlfriends annoyed look?” Mina snipes back, her smile never leaving her face.

Nayeon only replies with a roll of her eyes and an exaggerated ‘hmph’. Mina knows her girlfriend is just cranky since she was tired so she hops up into her lap. 

“What’s the matter genius? Bad day?” Mina says kissing her girlfriends cheek who drops her annoyed act and smiles as she puts her arms around Mina’s waist. 

“Mhmm. Just took a bit longer to figure out the spider queen’s suit.” Nayeon huffs. 

“You know it’s spider-girl Nayeon.” Mina corrects laughing at her girlfriends ridiculous need to say everyone’s name wrong. 

“Whatever. That brat Chaeyoung is so lucky I spend so much damn time working on this shit! This is like a billion dollar tech and she’s wrecking it by swinging from the skyscrapers of Seoul to catch some damn purse snatc-'' Nayeon can’t finish as Minas lips meet hers.

“Shh. You know you treat her like the sister you never had so stop whining. Plus someone has to defend those poor old lady’ss from having their purses snacthed.” Mina digs at Nayeon who rolls her eyes. “Less talking, more kissing.”

“The super cool world icon her i-robot whining to her girlfriend for kisses?. What would the world think?” Mina grins while peppering her now huffing girlfriend with kisses. 

“Yah- wait! Hey! Stop! You- can’t kiss me to make me shut up you know I know what you’re doi-“ Nayeon doesn’t get to finish as Mina continues assaulting Nayeon with kisses. Nayeon relents and melts into her girlfriend's kiss. Pulling her closer. 

“What were you saying?” Mina smirks. Clearly the victor of their little argument. Nayeon leans back in defeat and stares lovingly at her girlfriend who was apparently making herself at home on her lap. Resting in comfortable silence. 

Nayeon clears her throat cutting through the silence. “So how was magic school babe? Learn to pull any rabbits out of your hat?” Nayeon’s smirks cheekily. Mina grumbles “You know I can teleport you to the middle of the Antarctic and leave you there right?”

“I’m sure you can miss sorcerer supreme.” Nayeon grins pecking her girlfriend. Mina huffs “you’re insufferable.” They both laugh enjoying the time spent together. Though they tease each other it’s without edge and meant as nothing more than playful banter.

“Wanna head up to bed?” Nayeon suggests feeling herself getting tired again and not wanting to sleep in her lab with her girlfriend hanging on her neck while sitting on her lap. 

“Mhmm.” Mina nods and hums in approval.

“Okay. Off. Let’s go.” Nayeon says only for Mina to hold on tighter. “No I’m tired. Carry me.” She says burying her face into the crook of Nayeon’s neck. “Mina are you serious?” Nayeon stomps and whines. “I’m tired babe… can’t you just do the thing with the circle and take us to the bedroom?” 

“Why would I do that when I could use the door and and passcodes like a normal person?” Mina says pulling a bit away revealing her smirk as she revels in turning her own girlfriends words against her. 

Nayeon huffs out. Defeated. 

“Fine. But tell the damn cloak of Leviosa to stop following us it’s creepy and I think it’s a bit of a pervert.” Nayeon jokes side eyeing the cloak.

“Cloak of levitation.” Mina corrects. 

“Whatever.” Nayeon huffs carrying her girlfriend bridal style as the doors to her lab smoothly slide open and just when she walks through the threshold Mina does the ‘circle thing’ as Nayeon puts it and summons a portal to take them to the bedroom. 

Nayeon smiles a wide grin before turning to the levitating cloak about to follow them through the portal. “Stay.” She says as Mina waves her cloak off and it sinks dejected before turning around and hovering around the lab. 

“And don’t touch my stuff!” Nayeon warns the cloak knowing it can understand. The portal shuts and Nayeon drops Mina on their bed. 

“Thanks babe.” Nayeon says pecking her girlfriend's cheek before hopping into bed with her. 

“Mhmm. I didn’t wanna hear you whine about being tired or me being heavy when we eventually get here if you had carried me.” Mina playfully jokes. “Also you owe me now.” 

“Fine, what would you have me do princess?” Nayeon’s quips raising her brow.

“I think you cuddling me and breakfast in bed tomorrow sound lovely!” Mina says pulling Nayeon and the sheets closer. “And don’t even think about having Chaeyoung make it I want you to do it by hand.” Mina says before Nayeon can reply.

“With love” Mina adds.

“Fine.” Nayeon pulls Mina close. They both lay there listening to each other’s breathing before they both drift off to sleep with smiles on their faces.


	2. Ice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nayeon attempts levitating. Chaeyoung crashes a date. Nayeon is still kinda grumpy.

“Focus Nayeon.” Mina’s voice echoes as Nayeon shuts her eyes concentrating on the trying to levitate.

“Calm your breathing. It’s too erratic. Clear your mind. This kind of stuff needs the utmost concentration.” Nayeon takes a peak at Mina who was sitting in the lotus position slightly hovering from the ground. 

“Stop staring and shut your eyes.” Mina says without opening hers. 

“Your eyes aren’t open how did you know!” Nayeon says incredulously. “Was it the eye of time?” 

“Eye of Agamotto.” Mina replies stifling a laugh. “and no I just know you. Now close your eyes and try again, focus on what you want to do. Envision it in your mind.” 

“Fine.” Nayeon huffs shutting her eyes and mimicking Minas pose. She takes a deep breath. Shuts her eyes. And clear her mind. Envisioning her levitating. She does it for what she’d say is 10 minutes but is closer to a minute. Then it happens she feels herself floating ever so slightly off the ground. Feeling her but detaching from the wooden surface of Mina’s meditation room.

“Mina! Mina! I did it! I’m floating! Look!” Nayeon shouts 

Mina opens her eyes and Nayeon is ever so slightly hovering on the ground. It was a start “Great job Nay!” Mina claps happy for her girlfriend. “Okay now focus you’re almost there!” 

One second she was floating and celebrating reaching a bit higher, the next she’s celebrating a bit too much and falls to the ground. Nayeon groans before looking up to see her girlfriend and her levitating cloak side by side. 

“Thanks for the back-up cape.” Nayeon’s says pointedly to the cloak. It bows as if to apologize. Mina laughs at her girlfriend. “Don’t be a baby you were barely a foot of the ground.” 

“A foot? Really?!”

“Eh maybe closer to a inch.” Mina teases as she helps her girlfriend up.

“Okay now that’s just rude.” Nayeon laughs out loud smacking Mina’s hand away playfully before accepting it and being pulled up. 

“Well.” Nayeon says stretching her arms and back. “That’s enough magic for the week. I gotta limit myself you know, if I do this everyday I’d be head Wizards in no time.” 

“It’s sorcerer supreme and you wish, you have zero patience and this requires a lot of it.” Mina jokes back. 

Nayeon opens the door for her girlfriend as they head towards the kitchen. “Mhmm. Whatever you wanna think baby.” Nayeon hears her stomach grumble. “I’m hungry. Ice cream sound good?” 

“Nayeon. It’s 9 in the morning, I'm not having ice cream for breakfast and neither are you, how about I make us some breakfast then we go for a run and then we can have ice cream at that one shop!” 

Nayeon groans. “Again? But we just worked out!” 

“That was working out our brain and our mental state now we have to work on our physical self. Ya know be in tip top shape and all that.” Mina smirks at her whiny girlfriend. “Now let's go, I’ll make your favorite.” 

“Fine but I want a double scoop.” Nayeon grumbles as Mina grabs Nayeon’s hand and drags her along to the kitchen. She acts annoyed but when Mina turns around she grins from ear to ear happy to do whatever as long as Mina is involved. 

-

The couple walked down the busy street of Seoul hand in hand. 

“I’m glad to be out and doing normal stuff today. No magic, no aliens, no magic stones, and especially no hammer wielding assholes who keep talking to me in riddles about a vague threat.” Nayeon smiles as she happily licks her double scoop of strawberry ice cream before offering some to Mina who accepts without a second thought.

“Jeongyeon?” Mina licks the offered ice cream a bit too much which causes Nayeon to playfully protest.

“Yeah I swear ever since she became ‘worthy’ of that hammer or whatever she’s been more and more….”

“Wise? Thoughtful? Perceptive?” 

“I was gonna say annoying but I guess those fit too.” Nayeon laughs and Mina snorts. 

“It’s just nice to have a normal day you know?” 

“Yeah, it is nice to have a day off, to take a step back and just enjoy the things most important to us.” Mina says squeezing Nayeon’s hand. They look at each other for a moment and see the world in each other’s eyes. 

Then the moment is gone as someone comes falling from the sky. Mina senses it first as if expecting this to happen. Her cloak appeared out of nowhere dashing towards the falling person attempting to catch them on Mina’s orders.

“Woah! Watch out! Oh Shit-“ the person shouts out helplessly careening towards them. 

Nayeon quickly pulls Mina back clutching her girlfriend in her one arm and raising her other arm her suit already forming on her arm, arc blasters aimed at the unknown figure. Mina looks up at Nayeon who has utter concentration at the moment wanting to protect Mina who can handle herself easily.

“Woah Nayeon is hot when she’s focusing.” Mina smiles while thinking to herself.

The cloak manages to break the person's fall and lets them down on the ground before she could crash. 

“Woah! Wait where am I? Did I die? What happened? Shit! where Tzuyu? Oh god why does heaven look just like downtown Seoul?” The person thrashes on the ground before jumping and and scanning her surroundings before her eyes fall on Mina and Nayeon who looks beyond pissed realizing who the person was. 

Chaeyoung. 

“I should blast you…” Nayeon ponders for a moment before Mina puts her hand over her girlfriends armored arm and brings it down. Nayeon relents, her eyes turning to look at her fallen frozen dessert like she lost just lost a slice of her own happiness. 

“Oh Mina unnie! Hi!” Chaeyoung greets happily and pulls her in for a hug. “Hey Chae! How’s the new suit? Treating you well?” 

“Yeah Nayeon unnie is seriously a genius and the new material is much more breathable, I don't feel like a knight in a suit of armor anymore while i’m in it. I was actually just testing out the web slingers and changing some calibrations…” Chaeyoung says rubbing the back of her neck laughing it off trying to hide what actually happened. 

“That’s good to hear Chae, let nayeon know if you need help with anything she loves tinkering in her lab. Right babe?” 

Nayeon hasn’t really been paying attention to the conversation, she hears bits and pieces and she knows Chaeyoung is lying about the calibrations since her web slingers are practically burning on her wrist, but Nayeon says nothing, focusing on her own trauma for now.

“Babe?” Mina nudges

“My ice cream….” Nayeon mourns.

Mina giggles at how ridiculous Nayeon is being before pecking her pouty cheeks. “We’ll get some more later okay?” 

Nayeon perks up at the kiss and the prospect of more ice cream. “Fine.” 

Now Nayeon turns her eyes to a Chaeyoung who looks like she has been caught. Nayeon extends her hand out. “Give me your web slingers.” Nayeon orders knowing exactly what Chaeyoung did. 

Chaeng hands them to her. Nayeon takes one glance at them and huffs. “You overloaded the throughput?” Nayeon asks annoyed someone tinkered with her work and offended they thought they would do a better job than her.

“Uh… yeah kind of.. I was just trying to test and see how far the web slingers could reach… if you know I need to sling from further away..” Chaeyoung tries to defend but Nayeon isn't buying it.

“There’s already a setting for that and you mentioned Tzuyu when you got up?” Nayeon starts putting it together. She wants to be mad, but this is something her irresponsible ass would do. 

“You were racing Tzuyu down this street with your web slingers while Tzuyu used her bow and grappling hook weren’t you. You kept losing so you tried overloading the slinger for more power?” Chaeyoung looks wide eyes impressed and shocked that Nayeon was able to put it together so quickly. 

Mina laughs at the situation while licking her still somehow intact mint ice cream. Chaeyoung really was exactly like Nayeon in so many ways.

“Unnie! How did you figure it out so quickly, that’s seriously so impressive!” Chaeyoung compliments loudly knowing trying to appeal to Nayeon’s ego. “Oh save it Chaeyoung, I can’t believe you did that! Do you know how dangerous that is? What if Mina wasn’t here? Or the cloak of levitation wasn’t here to break your fall? This isn’t some toy Chae, I made this for you to keep you safe and for you to train and harness your powers!” Nayeon scolds her younger friend her tone harsher than she meant it to be. 

“Well I wouldn't have to if you didn’t put a damn child lock on the other settings! It’s like you handed me a Ferrari but you handicapped it so I wouldn’t be able to drive it past 35 Miles per hour, how is that fair?” Chaeyoung replies raising her voice but as soon as the words leave her mouth she regrets it, she’s mad she lost and she’s lashing out. 

Nayeon looks at her for a moment, Chaeyoung expression unreadable before sighing loudly. Mina puts an arm on her girlfriends shoulder and rubs it gently, trying to calm her down. Nayeon and Chaeyoung stare at each other. Chaeyoung speaks first.

“I- I’m sorry unnie I shouldn’t have-” Chaeyoung looks down, feeling ashamed at how she acted and expecting Nayeon to scold her more, instead Nayeon pulls her into a hug. 

“No, I should be the one to say sorry, I should trust you more. You aren’t a kid anymore and I have to realize that. You’re right it isn’t fair.” Nayeon says pulling away and ruffling Chaeyoung’s hair. Mina smiles and approves of her girlfriends mature response. “I’ll try and trust you more Chaeng.” 

The two friends share a moment before Nayeon decides the moment is over. 

“Whew well that’s enough mush for today, I usually only reserve this side for Mina, I have a reputation to uphold after all! You know billionaire, play- er former playgirl-” Nayeon steals a glance at Mina who just stares at her almost daring her to finish what she was saying “Yeah former playgirl’ Nayeon coughs “and philanthropist.” She looks at Mina again who was just casually eating her ice cream like she wasn’t ready to rip Nayeon’s head off a second ago. 

Chaeyoung laughs at her two unnies interaction. It takes a special someone to be able to handle Im Nayeon and Mina seems to have it down perfectly. Before the couple can start bickering, Chaeyoung phone rings and Nayeon sees Tzuyu’s name flashes on the screen. “Give it to me!” Nayeon smirks catching the phone being tossed her way. 

“Sorry Tzu…” Chaeyoung grumbles knowing she just sold out her best friend. 

“Chaeng? you good? I saw you fall but I’m pretty sure Mina Unnie’s cloak caught you and then I saw Nayeon Unnie looking pissed so I kinda got scared! You know how she gets…” tzuyu's voice can be heard over the phone. Nayeon switches the phone call to a video call.

“Tzuyu….” the archer looks wide-eyed at the screen realizing what she just did. 

“Ahh. Nayeon-Unnie! Y-you know it’s rude to answer other people’s phones….” Tzuyu at least tries to change the subject. 

“Oh save it Legolas. You’re in just as much trouble as Chaeyoung. You’re supposed to be the responsible one! Not enabling her crazy ideas!” 

“To be fair she-“ Tzuyu tries to defend herself but Nayeon isn’t having it. “I’m not done yelling!” 

“Nayeon” Mina softly says trying to reel Nayeon’s bubbling anger back causing her girlfriend to sigh loudly. 

“You’re both training with me and Mina tonight. That’s final.” Nayeon orders turning on her signature smile. “Okay…. I got it. I’m sorry.” Tzuyu tries the puppy’s eyes. 

“Not working. See you tonight! Love you! Bye!” Nayeon sends her a wave and a snarky smile before ending the call.

“Okay. Well, let's go get more ice cream!” Nayeon grins snatching her girlfriend's hand and heading back towards the direction of the ice cream shop. 

Chaeyoung stands unsure whether to come with them and third wheel the couple knowing exactly how sickeningly sweet they can be with each other. 

“You coming son-spider?” She hears Nayeon shout out. Chaeyoung has her answer. “Yeah!” Chaeyoung shouts skipping along to join them trailing a bit behind wanting to give them some privacy.

“Hey wait, why is your ice cream still in tact?” Nayeon looks amazed. “Levitation.” Her girlfriend grins. “Okay so you saved your own ice cream and not mine?!” Nayeon looks betrayed. “It was mint chocolate or strawberry. It wasn’t much of a choice.” Mina playfully shrugs causing Nayeon to stomp her feet like a temper throwing tantrum kid. “So you’re saying you’d save yourself before saving me?” 

“That’s not what I said.” Mina says not wanting to engage her girlfriend in her antics. “That’s what it sounds like you're saying though!”

“Babe. You aren’t ice cream, and you know the answer to this question. Stop being silly.” 

“I know. I just like hearing you say it!” A satisfied grin on Nayeon’s face. 

“How old are you?” Mina giggles because for some reason everything Nayeon does is always so sweet and funny to her. “Do you see what I have to deal with Chaeng?” Mina turns to their short friend for backup. 

“Nayeon-Unnie can be a handful! I’m surprised you can handle her so well!” Chaeng decides to join in. Nayeon whines. “Not you too.” 

-

Nayeon opens the door to her Audi R8 and steps away. Chaeyoung steps forward and attempts to get in the passenger seat but Nayeon’s hand stops her. “Sorry kid, it’s a two seater! Here.” Nayeon grabs a tool from her car and tinkers with the web shooters for a second before handing them back to Chaeyoung. “I fixed your web-slinger. You can find your way to my place right?” Nayeon tosses the device to her before turning around and signaling for Mina to get in. 

“But I wanna ride in your car…” Chaengyoung pouts.

“Maybe next-“ Nayeon’s sentence is cut off by the sound of Mina summoning a portal for her to walk through. Cloak following behind. “Now you have room.” Mina smirks before stepping through the portal and turning around and blowing her girlfriend a kiss. “See ya at home baby!” 

The portal closes before Nayeon can say anything else, leaving her gaping like a fish and a giddy Chaeyoung excitedly dashing to the expensive car. Nayeon shakes her head and smiles. She’s gonna get her girlfriend back for this. 

“I’ve never been in a car this nice Unnie! How much was it? Is this the new model? How fast can it go?” Chaeyoung bombards Nayeon with endless questions as she retracts the roof wanting to feel the fresh air, Nayeon takes a pair of sunglasses and gives Chaeyoung a spare pair that seems too big for her. Her friend looked ridiculous. 

“Don’t know. If you gotta ask you can’t afford it. Probably? It got gifted to me. Don’t know, probably faster than 35 miles an hour though.” Nayeon jokes as she pulls onto the highway. Chaeyoung laughs out loud enjoying the time spent with her Unnie. 

“This is so cool! Go faster Unnie!” Nayeon glances at her friend and sees a look of pure joy. Nayeon steps on the accelerator a bit more giving Chaeng what she wants. The cool wind blowing through their hairs. 

“This is so fun! Ahhh!” Chaeyoung shouts out as they sped down the highway. Nayeon’s heart seems to swell with Joy as her younger friend excitedly shouts. 

She’ll never admit it to anyone though. She has a reputation to uphold. 

Chaeyoung unbuckles her seatbelt and attempts to stand up as she shouts at the wind while the car was moving causing Nayeon to snatch her by the shirt with her free hand. 

“Sit! Or I’m stopping the car and you can walk.” She warns. 

“Sorry Unnie. It’s so much fun in this car going so fast! Hopefully I can afford one like this one day!” Chaeyoung sits back down, her smile still wide and hair messed up by the wind. 

“You will, I have faith in you.”

They settle into a comfortable silence enjoying the fresh air and each other’s company. Chaeyoung shifts from side to side with her smile still there, Nayeon can sense she wants to ask something.

“Speak.” Nayeon says breaking the silence. 

“Can I uh- do you think maybe I can drive?” Chaeyoung asks sheepishly, avoiding eye contact with Nayeon. Nayeon laughs for a second before deciding on her answer.

“Fine.” Nayeon pulls over and swaps with Chaeyoung. “Have you driven before?” She casually asks as she buckles her seatbelt. 

“Only in video games.” Chaeyoung replies focusing on the road and the road. Nayeon takes a breath. “Treat her like an adult, treat her like an adult.” She says to herself like a chant to calm herself. 

-

Later on at night after training is done and the boxes of takeout are cleared, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu are cuddled in the living room sofa with a movie playing in the background as they dozed off. Nayeon walks by them shutting the lights off and draping a blanket over the two as they shift ever so slightly. 

“Night idiots.” Nayeon lovingly whispers before heading back down to her lab.

She found Mina laying on the sofa set off to the side of her lab, one that she uses to sleep or pout when she gets frustrated and can’t figure something out. Mina had been entertaining her girlfriend as she messed with a new armor model, she tried to focus but eventually sleep overcame her and she’s knocked out with the spell tome she was reading clutched in her hand. 

Nayeon smiles at the sight and sound of her girlfriends soft snores. She grabs the blanket sitting on the couch and tucks Mina in while removing the tome and setting it aside. “Night baby.” Nayeon pecks her girlfriend's cheek who leans into the kiss subconsciously.

Nayeon walks over to the middle of the lab and plops down and crosses her legs. “Okay. You can do this Nayeon. Just like Mina says. Focus.” Nayeon gives herself a small pep talk trying to hype herself up. 

“Just. Close your eyes. And focus.” 

Nayeon shuts her eyes and evens out her breathing. 

She gets distracted. Focusing instead on Mina’s soft breathing. Listening to the sound she was making. She focuses on that instead. And lets her mind go. Envisioning herself floating.

“Dammit. It isn’t worki-“ Nayeon opens her eyes and realizes she is hovering 3 feet of the ground. This time however she manages to compose herself not wanting to fall on her ass. 

She silently screams “Mina, Mina, Mina, Mina, Mina, Mina, Mina, Mina! I did it!” Mina is fast asleep.

“This is no fun without being able to brag.” 

Nayeon looks at the levitating cloak hovering off to the side. “Well…. you saw me do it right? You’ll tell Mina?” The cloak nods and claps which makes Nayeon smile victoriously. 

“Wait- how the hell do I get down?” Nayeon panics breaking the concentration and she had which causes her to fall. 

“Great job babe! Landing needs a little work though.” Mina slowly gets up giggling. “How long have you been up?” 

“Long enough to see you shout my name a bunch then fall. It's cute.” 

Nayeon’s face turns red. “And you didn’t help me figure out how to get down?” She says trying to draw attention away from her embarrassed face. 

“I liked watching you focused.” Mina smirks as she shakes her head slightly attempting to fix her bangs. 

“Liked what you saw?” Nayeon laughs wanting to hear more compliments. 

“It was beautiful.” Mina gets up and helps her girlfriend who sat comfortably on the floor. “Bed?” 

“Guess so. Can you carry me?” Nayeon hops up and down giving her best puppy eyes and hanging off Mina’s neck now. “and no magic portals! I wanna enjoy my piggyback ride!” 

The couple laughs together and Mina relents.

“I guess you’ve earned it” Mina pecks Nayeon’s cheeks who’s already climbing on her back. “But tomorrow you’re learning how to use the sling-ring, I refuse to be your personal ’circle thing’ summoner anymore.” 

“Slingshot? Don’t you just pull it back and shoot? Why do I need that? I have a repulsor beam and a bunch of other weapons in my suit!”. 

“Sling-ring. And I’ll drop you” Mina playfully warns her girlfriend before summoning a portal to their bedroom. “No fair! I wanna be carried more!” Nayeon huffs being cheated from her piggy back ride. 

“You’ll live, besides” Mina says setting her girlfriend down before straddling her. ”I’ll make up for it by cuddling all night.” 

“I guess that sounds like a good trade off.” Nayeon grins from ear to ear, as happy as she could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Hope everyone enjoyed! Felt like I lost a bit of steam towards the end, anyways please let me know what you thought of it. I love feedback! I am @/hoodienayeon on the bird app. Or just tweet using #TwiceAvengers if ya want. Thank you!
> 
> I do have a third chapter planned. Mina gets trapped in the dark dimension. Nayeon goes to rescue her. You'll meet some other members.


	3. Let go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sana and Momo go to Japan, they fight a gargoyle, a new threat emerges, and Nayeon becomes Sorcerer Supreme?

This was supposed to be an easy mission. At least that’s what Nayeon and Mina told Sana and Momo a week ago during their briefing. 

Find this group of smugglers. The target was an ornate black box that was supposed to contain an expensive relic worth billions of dollars. A deal was supposed to go down in Japan that same week so Sana and Momo were off to find it and bring it back to base.

Sana heard through some old contacts that a meeting was supposed to take place tonight for a swap, a light one hundred million dollars in exchange for the relic. 

Sana and Momo meant to ambush them so they set up at the location of the sale and waited. Two groups of men meet. Five men on one side with multiple duffle bags full of money, eleven across from them armed with automatic rifles. No words we exchanged. 

The leader of the group of eleven men stepped out from the crowd holding the box. The buyers nodded and they showed each duffle bag full of money. The hooded man nods and his men raise their rifles the men with money raise their arms up in surrender. 

The hooded man raises the box and in a flash the men opposite from him set on fire before being drained into the box.

Sana and Momo looked wide-eyed at the scene in front of them. 

“Mo, tell me i didn’t just watch this box set bodies on fire then drain the fire leaving no bodies….?”

“I think that’s exactly what happened.” Momo sounded just as shocked as Sana was but she wasn't gonna let this deter her from finishing the mission.

Sana looked at her friend and nodded. “Okay so it wasn’t just me..so we call Mina now right?” 

Momo’s helmet is on and she gets up “No, we can handle this, trail them and cut them off in the alleway they used to enter. I’m going to block the other end.” Then Momo shrunk down and used her wings to fly off. 

Sana put her helmet on and looked at her wrist display and thinks should call Mina now, her finger hover over the button and decides against it. She calls for her flying Ant and goes to cut them off in the alleyway.

-

“Hey! Come back!” Sana’s running out of breath chasing the robbers down an alleyway. A black van skids to a stop at the other end of the alley and the armed men jump in, that last man that enters turns around flips Sana off to taunt her before slamming the door shut. 

“Oh screw you!” Sana yells throwing one of the shrink disks Nayeon made for her. The van pulls away right before the projectile can make contact, the disk instead hits a parked car and shrinks it down as the owner was unlocking it leaving the old man confused.

“Oh god! Sorry! sorry!” Sana comes running down in her shrink suit bowing profusely. She messes with the touchpad on her wrist and brings the man's car back to regular size. “Sorry again!” 

Sana takes off in the direction the van went. “Momo! They got away. They’re in a black van going down, uh I don’t know what street this is... the main one!” 

“I got it. I see them.” 

Sana shrinks down to ant size. “Anthony!” She says in a singsong voice. A flying ant quickly appears and lands right next to Sana ready to be mounted. “Alright let’s go buddy!” 

They take off and zoom after the black van.

-

Momo tracks the van down to an abandoned warehouse near the port of Kobe, she flys up to a warehouse adjacent to it trying to get a good vantage point and see what’s inside. 

“Why the hell do criminals have a thing for meeting in the dirtiest abandoned warehouses?” A cheery voice from behind Momo rings out. 

Sana landed her ant behind her. “Thanks Anthony!” Patting her flying friend before joining Momo who’s on the ledge snorting “you named your flying ant?” 

Sana eagerly nods “of course! It gives them a personal touch so they know I care! That’s Anthony-0324… I think?”

“You don’t even know what number that one is?” Momo grins as Sana protests. “Okay! That isn’t really fair the ant is new and I can’t remember all the numbers…” 

“mhmm if you say so, so much for giving them a personal touch.” Momo teases. 

She pulls a small drone out of her utility belt and tosses it in the direction of the warehouse, the drone taking shape into a Wasp and zooms inside quickly finding a perch right over the men gathered around the front of the van giving the two an excellent vantage point. 

“Okay, it’s in. I’m sharing my head ups display.” Momo clicks a button and the feed appears on Sana’s helmet display too. 

“10 guys plus the weird hooded guy, all armed with automatic rifles. These guys seemed trained” Momo counts out, assessing the situation. “I thought Jihyo said they were amateur smugglers?” Sana ponders. “No that was Nayeon calling you an amateur thief.” 

Sana smiles at the memory of her arguing with Nayeon about how she would break into her lab. “Oh yeah!”

“Pay attention Sana, something’s up here. I don’t like this.” 

“We can always-”

“We aren’t calling Mina.” Momo stops her knowing what she would say. 

Sana understood why her friend didn’t want to call and ask for help. Momo was prideful and she always wanted to prove she belonged with the other girls Nayeon was a genius and a billionaire. Mina not only became a renowned surgeon, but when an accident derailed that career she became a powerful mage that regularly battles back against demonic forces trying to take over the earth. Jeongyeon had been deemed worthy of an ancient hammer she found in the snowy mountain caps of Norway that imbued her with the power of a norse god. Jihyo was a supersoldier that always seemed to do the right thing. 

Momo though? She was just a regular human who had an amazing group of friends that did her best to help her feel like she belonged. Everything she could do, she relied on hard work, training, and skill. She was sometimes even hesitant to use Nayeon’s technology as she didn’t want a crutch. So Sana understood why Momo acted like this. 

The camera feed then shows the ornate black box being pulled out of the van. The men gather around it and kneel.

“What the hell is it?” Sana whispers.

It’s like the men inside hear her because as Sana asks they unseal the box. A blinding light flashed for a second followed by this sinking feeling of despair and dread before the inside was revealed. 

A circlet ablaze with blue flames hovered in the box. The hooded man holding the box raises it up over his head, the rest of the men begin chanting. A circle of fire forms around them. 

“Okay, for some reason I don’t think this is normal, right Momo? because fire normally doesn’t do that right? form out of thin air? And you felt that dread when the box was opened right?” Sana looks towards Momo who jumps down and shrinks as she activates her wings. “Call Mina and stay put, wake her if you have too!” 

“Now you wanna call Mina?” Sana says tapping her touchpad “Wait stay here? No let me help! Where are you going?!” 

“Stopping a summoning ritual.” Momo bullets towards the warehouse without another word leaving Sana annoyed on the rooftop. “What the hell is wrong with her? I’m her partner, right Anthony?” 

Sana taps a button on her touchpad that pings their location to Mina and Nayeon before getting a running start and jumping off the roof and hitting a flying Anthony in stride.

“Let’s go boy.” 

-

Momo zoomed forward and returned to normal size, using the speed she built up to land a hard flying punch on the hooded man in the center causing him to crash to the side. The box starts to shut and the ring of fire on the ground begins to die out. 

“Sorry to interrupt the demon summoning ritual but I’m gonna need that crown back.” 

The hooded man seemed to levitate back up as he recovered from the punch. “You shouldn’t have come here, you’re messing with power beyond this realm, brings with strength that dwarf your pathetic ability to resize, Hirai Momo.”

How did he know who she was? Momo thinks to herself.

“Who the hell are you?” Momo asks.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re as good as dead.” He looks towards the men now surrounding Momo, guns drawn, “kill her.” 

Momo shrinks and her wings extend. Flying to the closest man and slamming her fist hard into his gut causing him to recoil in pain, the other men aim and fire but Momo has already shrunk back, the bullets hit their friend instead. 

She dashed forward and headbutts a man with full force sending him flying towards some boxes off to the side. Momo pulls another man by his collar and tosses him towards a group of three with their guns trained on her, they fall like bowling pins.

“Four more.” She smirks looking towards the hovering leader.

Momo shrinks again and lands a spinning kick on another man's chin.

“Three more-“

“ENOUGH OF THIS.” The hooded man extends his arm and freezes Momo in place. Every fiber of her being tries to fight it but it’s like an invisible force holds her in place. Momo looks towards the button on her wrist, if she can only hit it, maybe shrinking will break the hold she thinks to herself the hooded man seems to know what she's thinking.

“I told you Hirai, you’re dealing with power far beyond your comprehens-“ the man begins screaming in pain and falls down to the ground as the hold breaks. He grabs at his neck which seems to be the source of his pain. 

Momo spots a bullet ant crawling down on his body which stings the hand that’s reaching for his neck causing him to double over in pain. She smiles.

Sana appears next to Momo “you good Mo?” 

Momo nods “Yeah, nothing I couldn’t handle myself.” 

Sana rolls her eyes “You know, “thank you” is also an appropriate response in situations where someone helps you.” 

“Thank you.” Momo says as she shrinks “you take the guys on the left.” 

Sana follows her lead, shrinking down and jumping upwards uppercutting one man before knocking the gun away from the other with a roundhouse kick before following it up with a kick square to his chest. 

Momo handles the last two men easily, the duo meeting back together around the box. “What the hell is it?” Sana questions.

“I don’t know but we should take it to Mina before anything else-“ 

“You have failed me.” A booming voice echoes from seemingly nowhere.

Then the hooded man suddenly floats upwards and engulfs himself in flames, his body contorting and transforming. The other armed men with him all engulf into flames as well but their flames are all absorbed by the burning hooded man.

“I’m not a demon expert but I think he’s like draining their life force or something.” Sana says as they ready themselves for whatever is coming. 

Wings sprouts from his back and his whole body becomes a grotesque gargoyle like creature. The hooded man is no longer. Instead a ten foot tall monstrosity stood in front of them. It scans the surroundings before setting its eyes on Momo and Sana. 

“Holy shit you are ugly.” Sana let’s out unsure of what else to say. The creature has a twisted smile on his face and flashes its fangs. It charges at the two. 

Momo grabs the box and tosses it to Sana before the two split apart. “Take the box and get out of here Sana!” Momo orders as she swiftly dodged the creatures attacks, sidestepping one punch and shrinking to avoid another.

“What? No I’m not leaving you with that thing, it’s gonna kill you!” Sana protests as she shrinks the box and stows it in her utility belt. 

“We can beat it together. I have a plan!” 

“No! I’m not gonna be able to forgive myself if anything happens to you!” Momo valiantly puts up a fight, years of hand to hand training takes over and for a second it looks good for Momo, she lands a couple of bullet punches and somewhat fazes the creature but it catches her as she turns back into normal size trying to hit its chest. 

The creature hits Momo with a punch and it cracks her helmet visor then swings its tail and full speed hitting Momo and sending her flying to the end of the warehouse and knocking her out.

“Momo!” 

Sana needed to do something. “Oh crap.” Sana taps the touchpad on her wrist bringing up the ‘Giant’ option. “I can only transform to about the same size…. and I only have enough particles for maybe two minutes, I have to make them count.” Sana thinks to herself.

“Okay. I can do this.” She shrinks down to Ant Size and gets a running start at the creature standing over Momo about to deliver the final blow, then she taps the screen again. 

In a second she transforms into a giant sized version of herself that stands about equal to the creatures height. “Hey ugly” Sana says using the built up momentum to crash her body into the creature’s which sends him flying through the back wall of the warehouse and into the ocean. 

She kneels next to her friend and takes her broken helmet off. Momo lays still and Sana starts to panic.

“Mo! Mo! Momoring!” she subtly shakes “Wake up, please don’t die on me!” Sana tries to maintain her composure but the thought of Momo not being okay starts to get to her. Momos eyes open just as Sana’s about to cry. “It’s gonna take more than a cheap shot to kill me you know.” Momo grins

“Stupid! Don’t scare me like that again!” Sana scolds, laughing back tears. “Geez don’t be such a baby! Also you could have done this the whole time?” 

“I can only stay like this for a short while! Nayeon and I have been training but I get super tired and dizzy after being giant for so long then I pass out and sleep for days ....so I guess that’s good?” Sana attempts to lighten the mood.

“Okay how much longer do you have?” Momo asks as Sana helps her up. “Uh- I’m getting pretty tired and I only have enough particles for another minute..”

Momo thinks of the scenarios in her head. “Okay, here’s the plan.”

A loud scream comes from underwater and the creature shoots out from below the surface and takes to the sky. It casts its gaze to Sana and dive bombs towards her. Sana braces for the impact and the two bodies collide and smash into the van parked in the middle of the warehouse.

The creature recovers first and as Sana blocks its punch it quickly wraps its tail around one of Sana’s legs and throws her as hard as possible sending Sana flying through the entrance. The creature turns to Momo and grins as if to taunt her before it leaps up, bearing its sharp claws and tries to land on top of a disoriented Sana. 

“Sana watch out!” Momo tries to shrink but the regulator on her belt that controls the power won’t work, she runs towards Sana fighting through the pain of her broken leg but Momo knows she won’t make it in time. She watches helplessly and screams at Sana to move. 

Sana manages to dodge ever so slightly and the creature slams his fist on the ground next to her head. She feels herself getting more and more drained and knows she doesn’t have long before shrinking back to size. Using every ounce of energy left she kicks the creature on his side catching it trying to yank the fist from the ground, before it could react Sana gets up and punches it the face then grabs it tail and hurls the injured beast towards a stack of freight containers. 

Momo tosses a shrunk down car at Sana. “Catch!” 

They look at each other and nod, Sana tosses the miniature car at the downed monster and Momo hurls a shrink disk at the car, the projectiles collided mid-air causing the car to go back to normal size and smashing into the beast. The freight containers all start to fall on top of it, burying the monster in piles of metal. 

Sana sways and loses her balance as she reverts back to normal size but Momo is there to help steady her friend. “Thank you Sana.” 

“Couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you Mo.” Sana looks at her friend as her eyes lidded over, exhaustion ready to take her out.

They hold each other and sit on the cement for a bit wanting to enjoy their victory. Momo was thankful for Sana, she would be lost without her cheerful friend always ready to step up for her friends. 

The victory was short lived however as the rubble starts to shake and the creature, now set ablaze shoves piles of metal out of the way. In his hand it held a large metal rod from the debris. 

Momo tries to shakes her friend awake “Sana we have to go. NOW!” 

Sana tries to fight but she can’t, all her energy is gone. Momo slings Sana’s arm over her shoulder and carries her up but after taking two steps she collapses to the ground the searing pain coming from her leg and chest are too much. 

She looks at the enraged beast.

It raises its hand and sets the makeshift spear on fire, the creature cocks his arms back then drives the spear forward with all its might, hurling it directly at the duo with nowhere to run. Momo and Sana hold each other. 

“I’m sorry Sana.” Momo apologetically whispers holding her closest friend tight.

They brace for the end but the spear never comes. Instead a red circle appears behind the duo and Mina comes flying out.

She forms a red shield around her injured friends and the spear disintegrates on impact. The creature howls but before it could toss another projectile Nayeon appears in her suit and blasts the creature. “Okay did a statue a gargoyle statue come to life? Or am I dreaming?” Nayeon keeps blasting as the monster attempts to block the hits with its forearm. 

Tzuyu fires an arrow that splits off into a net that pins the creatures arm back then fires two more that exploded right in his face. It doesn't even daze the beast instead enraging it even more. 

Nayeon zips around the monster with a sword in hand slashing where she can before smacks her away like a bug. “Okay Tzuyu maybe not piss off the angry gargoyle.”

Tzuyu fires a few more arrows, some that shock, some than are meant to stun, none of them working. “Unnie you know you made these arrows right?” 

“Woah! Nayeon Unnie! What is this thing?” Chaeyoung says slinging forward and webbing up the other creatures arm trying to render useless.

“Don’t know squire, but stay far back and keep webbing it up!”

Nayeon gets close again and uses her sword to gash the monster's chest opening a large chunk of rotten smelling flesh. “Okay that smells awful.”

Tzuyu takes the que keeps firing arrow after arrow into the creatures wound and it’s clearly starting to hurt. Chaeyoung slings side to side and kicks it’s face over and over as it tries to break free it’s arms free. Howling in pain and getting frustrated the monster errantly swings its tail and catches Chaeyoung by surprise and sends her flying in the air. 

“Chae!” 

Nayeon jets towards her friend and catches her midair before she hits the ground. “I told you to stay away and web him up!” 

“Unnie I’m fine really, I just got a bit excited! This is fun!” 

Nayeon groans before setting Chaeyoung back down on top of some freight containers. “You and I have very different definitions of fun!” Nayeon then turns and jets towards the monster “Time to end this.” 

Tzuyu keeps up the shots but she’s running out of arrows, the monster manages to break one arm free, it catches Nayeon mid flight 

“Oh. that’s not good.” Nayeon lets out before she’s tossed forward like a baseball hurling her towards Mina who uses her cloak to catch Nayeon.

“Thanks babe.” Nayeon whispers at which Mina rolls her eyes and smiles. “Quit playing around and end this already Momo has a broken leg and some fractured ribs and Sana isn’t gonna be awake anytime soon.” 

Nayeon now and grins at her girlfriend. “Your wish is my command.” 

“Okay guys, Mina wants to go home so let’s finish up. Friday, direct full power to the Uni Beam.” The reactor on Nayeon’s chest plate lights up and she braces before firing a large beam of energy that blast the creature right where she had cut him in the chest and leaves a hole where flesh used to be, it howls in pain before collapsing. 

Chaeyoung slings her way back to the others and stands next to Tzuyu who puts an arm around her. “Are you okay? Why are you trying to show off? He could have hurt you? Does it hurt?” 

“Tzu! I’m fine! You’re really starting to sound like Nayeon Unnie you know?” Chaeyoung grumbles earning her light smack on her arm. “Okay and now you’re hurting me…” she says and the two laugh. 

“What took you guys so long?” The question comes from Momo who’s still holding Sana on the ground and as Mina tends to her leg. “Sorry Momoring I was meditating and Nayeon was distracting me” Mina looks up to Nayeon standing next to her eyes wide and shaking her head ”so she didn't notice ping.” Mina shyly replies.

“Stop using the cape to cover up the red marks on your neck Mitang!” Momo huffs annoyed “you guys were making out while we were fighting that ugly thing? Monsters are you guys' specialty!” Momo whines now. 

Nayeon gets out of her suit and sits next to Momo and puts an arm around her. “I’m sorry Momo we didn’t notice the beacon activating, I’m so sorry, I would have been here in a heartbeat.” 

Momo turns to the oldest and smiles. “It’s fine, I’m not upset about it, plus Sana was totally badass!” 

“She showed you the giant size?”

Momo nods enthusiastically in reply.

“She’s been working hard on it! Said she wanted to be able to contribute more to the team.” 

Momo looks down lovingly at Sana who was softly snoring. 

Momo then remembers why they were in the situation in the first place, she goes and retrieves the box from Sana’s utility belt “that reminds be, this is what they had, the creature, well before he was a creature he was a hooded man, he used a spell to open the box. It looked like a ritual? inside of it is this like crown or halo that’s ablaze in blue flames? It was freaky as hell.” 

Mina takes the box and inspects it a bit. It’s like nothing she’s seen before but the insignia on the top of the box troubled her. “It can’t be…”

Nayeon turns to look at her girlfriend, alarmed at her sudden change of mood. “What’s wrong Mina?”

Mina rises and creates a portal back to their base “something isn’t right, we were lured here by something-“ 

Suddenly the box slid away from Mina’s grasp and hovers in the air before it shatters open. The creature's dead body is turned to flame and is absorbed by the floating ring of blue fire, it expands and a face appears in the empty void that the flames surrounded.

The same voice from earlier echoes again.

“Sorcerer Supreme.” A sinister voice booms. “I expected much, much more from the master of the mystical arts.” 

Nayeon taps her foot impatient as some face in a flame insults her girlfriend. “Excuse me asshole face in a flame, I think I speak for us all when I say we aren’t interested in your soliloquy or life story so if you can get to the point so I can kick your ass too.”

The voice merely chuckles at the threat before responding. “Im Nayeon, so brash, so aggressive, so… foolish. Tell me do you think being the Iron Man makes up for all the mistakes you’ve made?” 

A body forms around the head, clad in a black robe adorned with red and gold plating down the middle, the edges of its robes burned around the edge. The demon towered over Mina and Nayeon.

“Dormammu” Mina whispers. 

The team reacts to the new threat. Nayeon takes one look at Sana and Momo then back at the looming threat before jumping back into her suit. “Tzuyu, take the bug couple back to base, Chaeyoung, go with her!” 

Mina creates a portal. 

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung hesitate for a moment, wanting to stay and help fight but realize that Sana and Momo would be sitting ducks. 

Nayeon looks back at the youngest members. “Go, I don’t want an argument.” 

Tzuyu quickly tugs Chaeyoung who seems unsure about the plan. “Cmon Chae, we gotta help Sana and Momo.” her words seem to snap Chaeyoung back to reality and she quickly carries an unconscious Sana while Momo hops on Tzuyu’s back. 

Nayeon and Mina look at each other for a moment, Nayeon seeing the worry in her girlfriends eyes. “It’s gonna be fine Mina, we’ll get through this. Just another demon.” Trying to reassure her. 

Mina knew better, she knew Dormammu wasn’t just another demon but Nayeon’s unwavering confidence gave her comfort. Mina looks lovingly at Nayeon. “I know.” 

She makes some symbols with her hands and summons two dark red circlets of energy rings, one on each hand. 

The flaming being chuckles lowly. “There won’t be any need for that. I’m here for your precious Mina.” 

Before either could react he turns himself into a dark portal. Unlike Mina’s portal where one could see the other side, this portal was as dark and empty as the void. All you can hear is the screams of pain and torture. 

Mina begins to be absorbed by it, Nayeon grabs onto Mina's hand and holds on tight. “Mina! Tell me how to stop it!” 

Mina struggles against the invisible pull that’s sucking her into the void. A sinister laugh echoes from the portal. “I- I don’t know.” Mina sounded unsure for the first time. 

“Mina, don’t I- we can stop this right?” Nayeon starts to panic as she tries her hardest to fight against the pull. The cloak wraps around Nayeon’s arm to help her grip and tries to yank Mina away to no success.

“Mina…” Nayeon retracts her helmet, eyes on the verge of tears “just hold on, I won’t let go. I promise.” 

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung notice what’s going on just as they set Sana and Momo down. Chaeyoung quickly ran back through the portal, Nayeon trying to pull Mina back out of the portal. 

It feels inevitable. Mina senses it. She sees the pained look on her girlfriend's face. Mina needed to be brave for her. She feels a sense of calm flow though her. She smiles at Nayeon. 

“Babe, you have to let go.” Mina calmly says.

“Wha-? Mina no. I’m not letting you go. If I can just-“ Nayeon starts to panic, nothing she’s doing is working.

“Let go Nayeon. It’s gonna be okay.” Mina urges her. 

Nayeon’s eyes are desperate and she pleads with Mina. “No- I, I can’t, I won’t, I need you, I don’t know what I’d without you. Please…. Mina.”

“I promise everything will be okay babe. I believe in you.” Mina smiles brightly at Nayeon one more time before she casts a final spell. The cloak detaches from her shoulders and Nayeon’s left with her own hand in Mina’s. 

The couple share one final moment. “I’ll find you, no matter what it takes” Nayeon chokes out “I’ll find you and I’ll bring you back.” Nayeon’s eyes filled with tears. “I promise-“ 

Mina smiles warmly. “I know, I love you.” 

She lets go. 

In a second, the portal closes and silence is all that’s left silence. Nayeon collapses on the ground, sobbing. Chaeyoung holds her unnie tight. Only one thought was left on Nayeon’s mind. 

Mina was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Mina will return in Chapter 4" : )
> 
> Next time. Jeongyeon gives Nayeon a reality check, Mina goes toe to toe with THE demon, and Chaeyu and the floating cloak just wanna help. 
> 
> Sorry but I wanted to write SaMo! I'm planning on exploring their backgrounds as well. How Nayeon and Mina met, Chae and Tzuyu, and I promise you'll meet the others soon! Thank you so much for reading. I am @/hoodienayeon on twitter, if you wanna let me know how you feel or talk about the fic/gimme feedback or comment on here. drop a like if you are so inclined! As always I really appreciate everyone who has read it, it means alot!


	4. Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nayeon gets a reality check. Mina is a badass. Chaeyoung and Tzuyu help and so does the cloak. Sana just wants to win.
> 
> Jihyo and Dahyun appear too!

Mina was gone. That was the only thought that repeated on her mind the past week.

So here Nayeon sat, in Mina’s meditation chamber, crossed legged. She exhales. Focuses. 

Nayeon begins to levitate. Meditating. Mina’s words echoed in her mind. 

“Remember what I taught you.” 

Nayeon poured over every detail, every book, every lesson Mina tried to teach Nayeon that she took for granted. Lessons she turned into a joke, now she was filled with anger and regret. 

Growing frustrated, Nayeon’s emotions start to get the best of her. Mina did this so well, she said it clears her mind, yet all it’s doing is making Nayeon miss her more. She levitates back down and grabs the closest object she can, throwing it in anger. The cloak swoops and catches the object before it collides with the ‘cauldron cosmopolitan’ as she referred to it as much to Mina’s false annoyance. 

Nayeon rolls her eyes. “Stop following me, and stop catching things I throw! I wanna hear it smash, I’m angry.” 

The cloaks brings the sword she threw back to Nayeon and sets it on her feet and nudges her as if wanting to play a game of catch. “No.” 

Nayeon groans and lays down on the wooden floor. “I’m talking to a damn levitating cloak that my girlfriend imparted to me as her last act” she sighs “I’m going crazy.” 

-

A rainbow colored beam formed right outside of the now reinforced glass window that looks into Nayeon’s living room. Nayeon had them made blast proof because of Jeongyeon’s love for beaming herself down right in front of them.

Jeongyeon emerges out of it in normal clothing as opposed to the cape and pseudo armor she sometimes had on, her hammer however was in hand. She spots Nayeon sitting with one of Mina’s tome in hand furiously flipping through pages.

Nayeon see’s her best friend entering but makes a point of ignoring her, not wanting to speak first. Jeongyeon nudges Nayeon with her hammer which induces a loud sigh from her friend. “I'm charging you for my lawn maintenance.” 

“I don’t think your landscaper- Sorry,  _ your  _ lawn artist accepts Asgardian dollars.”

Jeongyeon gets Nayeon to laugh at the lame joke which she takes as a win. Her friend shuts the book she was studying and sets it aside before looking at her. “You’re from earth, and grew up in money like me, so stop pretending you’re Australian or whatever.” 

“Asgardian.” Jeongyeon rolls her eyes hiding her smile. “That’s what I said!” 

Silence then takes over the room as neither wanted to say anything.

Jeongyeon shuffles a bit, trying to read Nayeon, unsure if her friend is gonna be open to talk about  _ it.  _ “Can I sit?” 

Nayeon looks up to her childhood best friend and they lock eyes, Jeongyeon trying to gauge her reaction, Nayeon looks away. “You're going to anyways.” 

Jeongyeon took what she got. 

They sat in awkward silence, Nayeon picks her tome up again, scanning the pages, trying to find any hints of what happened or where Mina could be. 

Jeongyeon sits next to her, tossing her hammer up light then catching it, doing the motion over and over, waiting for the right moment to say something or maybe she was waiting for Nayeon to say anything to her, anything at all. Her best friend had shut everyone out after Mina disappeared, no matter what they did. 

“So-“ Jeongyeon decides she would be the one to fall on the proverbial sword. “How are you?” 

Nayeon looks up barely acknowledging the question being posed before taking a deep sigh and shutting the heavy book. 

“I watched helpless and powerless as my girlfriend gets sucked into a portal to some dimension that sounds like it tortures people for fun, and her final words to me were ‘I know, I love you.’ And she thinks that I’m coming any second to save her, yet I’m stuck here, on earth, clueless as to how or where she is” Nayeon laughs sarcastically “so yeah Jeong, I’m fine, just fine.”

Jeongyeon shifts in her seat to look at Nayeon “You know that isn’t what I was asking….” 

Nayeon glares at her friend. “Okay, then it was a stupid question.”

Nothing was said for another minute. Jeongyeon thought back and forth about whether or not she should say what she needed to say to get through to her best friend. 

In the end Jeongyeon decides it's for the best. Nayeon needs the wake up call. She returns the glare. “Grow up Nayeon.” The air was thick as soon as the words left her mouth.

“What the hell did you say to me?” Nayeon rises tossing the book to the ground. Jeongyeon matches her every move.

“I said you should grow up Nay.” Jeongyeon puts both hands on her best friend's shoulders and shakes her. “Look around you, everyone is hurting Nayeon!” 

Nayeon blinks, rage in her eyes but Jeongyeon keeps going. 

“Sana and Momo practically grew up with her, yet you haven’t seen them once in the hospital have you? Jihyo and Dahyun are stuck in space frustrated and unable to help so I can’t even imagine how they feel. Tzuyu and Chaeyoung have been pretending to be okay all week for you but we all know they are about a second away from breaking down.” 

Nayeon’s eyes are hollow now the anger and fire gone from it.

“I lost her too Nayeon, we all did. But you aren’t helping anything by being an angry shut in. I get it, Mina was your light, and trust me when I say I would do anything to ease the pain in your heart and bring her back. But right now you are being a bitch to everyone and lashing out to people around who love you and it isn’t helpful or productive.” 

Jeongyeon finished and expected Nayeon to fire back to tell her she was wrong, or how she didn’t understand but Nayeon did none of that, instead she broke down and cried in Jeongyeons arms. Tears she thought had long since left her kept flowing like a dam suddenly breaking open.

“I- I’m so sorry Jeongyeon, I just, I am so fucking sorry.” Jeongyeon held her in her arms as she slowly rubbed circles on her back. “I’m scared I’m gonna lose her forever.” Nayeon forces out between sobs her friend holding her tighter. 

“You won’t” Jeongyeon whispers in her ear “I know you won't.”

-

“Have you seen Nayeon Unnie?” Chaeyoung asks Tzuyu as the duo slowly made their way to Mina’s library. 

Tzuyu shakes her head “No, not since training yesterday morning? I hope she’s getting sleep..” 

Chaeyoung opens the door and holds it for her friend. “I don’t think she will sleep until her body gives up and she literally stops functioning, yesterday I saw her go into the meditation room and she was in there for 12 hours, I brought dinner but I don’t think she ate..” 

The two youngest know how hard Nayeon is taking Mina’s disappearance, holding herself responsible despite going against a being that strong. It pained them to see Nayeon pushing herself harder and harder. “Nayeon unnie can’t take much more… we gotta find a way to help her find Mina unnie!”

“Which is why we are here in this dusty library.” Chaeyoung finds herself face to face in front of a large wooden bookshelf. She scans the books one by one “There has to be something here about a fire demon with the ability to drag one of the most powerful people we know against their will right?”

“Are these in english?” Tzuyu raises an eyebrow at her short girlfriend. 

“No, but Nayeon unnie made these glasses for Mina” Chaeyoung whips out a pair of gaudy looking glasses “they are meant to be able to translate any language, she says she'll sell them to the public but I think she made them because Mina unnie said something about being tired of translating old texts...” 

Tzuyu nods and smiles softly “Sounds like something unnie would do, Mina mentions some minor annoyance she has in passing and she finds a solution immediately. Come to think of it, she does that for all of us. I remember when my bow shattered while on that mission in Germany and she used some adamantium she had laying around to make a new unbreakable bow for me?”

Chaeyoung nods remembering her own Nayeon story “My new suit was made from technology that was unfinished because the team developing it said the issue they ran into was impossible to solve but Nayeon wanted me to have it right away so she finished it on her own and had the suit ready in a day…”

The duo pondered for a moment reminiscing moments where Nayeon absolutely had everyone’s back and did anything she could to help. “It’s our turn to help her out now.” Chaeyoung grabs a book from the top of the shelf and hands it to Tzuyu before grabbing one of her own. 

“Demons, fire, circles of fire, and other dimensions are keywords got it?” 

Tzuyu nods and they both plop down on the desk chairs in the middle of the room and begin scanning every book, one by one until they find any hint that could aid Nayeon and Mina.

-

The cloak had taken a liking to attaching itself on Nayeon’s shoulders, sticking to her wherever she went. By now she barely notices it on her except when she walks by Mina’s Sanctum Santorum, each time she passes by the door to that area the cloak would always pull Nayeon towards the direction of the room, as if trying to get her inside. 

This time was no different, Nayeon was on her way to visit Sana and Momo and immediately as she passed the door the cloak began tugging and pulling her towards the room. 

“No.” 

The cloak tugs harder. “I said no, now c'mon, you can either stay with me or hover by the door but I’m not playing this game with you today..” The cloak slumps in defeat and reattaches itself on Nayeon’s shoulders before they head off. 

-

Sana was no worse for wear after the fight with the demon gargoyle, a few scratches and bruises but she was more or less fine. 

Momo on the other hand took a bit longer to recover from her injuries and while technically she shouldn’t be able to walk right now with her broken leg, Nayeon had made a special brace that allowed her free movement and that sped up the healing process. Nayeon had made it the day after the incident and had it sent to Momo in the hospital, but neither have seen their friend in person since the night Mina was taken. 

The gym was filled with grunts and shouts as Sana and Momo had been sparring for a few hours now, Momo wanting to let loose some steam work out after being in a hospital for a week.

Sana had Momo cornered using a few underhanded tricks but she took a win against her friend anyway she could get it. “Give it up Mo!” 

The words barely left Sana before she found herself getting her leg swept. She tumbles to the ground and has her arm held tight around her back by Momo. “You lose.” Momo playfully taunts before letting off her blonde friend. 

“You cheated! I was distracted and gloating!” Sana whines not accepting the hand Momo extends out to help her out. She stomps her feet on the ground in defiance. 

Momo sits down on the ground with Sana since she refuses to get up. “How many times have I told you not to get distracted in a fight?” the blonde girl quickly rolling her eyes and looking away, “don't know, lost count” Sana huffs

“You’re being baby” Momo grins before tackling sana, they both roll around the ground laughing.

The door to the training room slides open without either Sana or Momo noticing, far too into their play wrestling match. 

“Am I interrupting?” Both Sana and Momo shoot up looking for the source of the voice to Nayeon standing by the entrance with her arms crossed and a wide grin on her face. 

“You look like shit.” Sana snorts before hopping up and pulling Nayeon for a hug, Momo right behind her. 

“I’ve been hearing that alot these days… not enough beauty sleep i guess..” Nayeon grins.

“Or at all” Momo pointedly says to which Nayeon has no reply to since she has barely slept the past week. “Not untrue- ...listen I’m really sorry for how i've been acting these days, I’ve been a.. Bitch, to all of you.. and” Nayeon takes a breath wanting to say more, probably needing too but instead Momo held her tight. “Nay, it’s okay it’s been a rough week for you, for all of us-” Nayeon stops Momo “that's the thing it has been a rough week, for all of us, not just me. I acted like I was the only one who lost Mina but you all did too, and that wasn't fair.”

Nayeon takes a moment to look at her two loving friends, friends she knew understood her deep down sometimes more than Jeongyeon or Jihyo did, maybe it was a bond formed from their mutual love for Mina. 

“But I promise, I’m gonna bring her back and I'll make it up to all you guys.” 

Sana and Momo stare lovingly at the oldest and nodded. Nayeon didn’t need to say it, they knew that Nayeon would move mountains and planets for Mina, hell, she’d do it for any of them. 

Sana makes a move and tugs Nayeon's hand towards the door “C’mon let's go get something to eat before you pass out from starvation” Nayeon hesitates for a minute before the stomach grumbles causing her to hide her face in embarrassment. Momo joins her and grabs her friends other arm “I won’t take no for an answer, you said you'd make it up to us.”

Nayeon lets them drag her out the door and whisks her away to deal with her hunger.

-

Chaeyoung was resting her head on top of an ancient looking book. She said to Tzuyu she needed to rest her eyes for just a few minutes which have now turned into an hour of her softly snoring. 

The two had gone through most of the books over the last eight hours, books lay strewn about, as once one was finished they had been stacked up next to them in no particular order, if Mina had seen her organized books scattered this way she would lose it.

Tzuyu had just finished one called ‘How you get the girl’. It wasn't a magical book and probably wasn’t gonna offer any hints to Mina’s whereabouts but she needed a break and one of the two had to be responsible enough to stay awake and keep searching. 

The book had been highlighted and annotated by Mina as if it was a mini guidebook to dating, it also had sticky notes to what Nayeon liked and disliked.

“These two are really something” Tzuyu softly laughs before safely putting the book that was probably the most precious one in the library, at least in terms of what it meant to Mina. 

Chaeyoung loudly snores in her sleep as if to agree. 

Tzuyu looks at her sleeping friend and studies her features and soft breathing, she seemed content. Her eyes trail to the title of the book she was sleeping on. It was in some ancient language and looks to be the oldest of the books, she puts the translation glasses back on and the text reads ‘The book of Cagliostro’ with a symbol she recognized somewhere then it hit her and her eyes grow wide.

She snatches the book and pulls it away without thinking. Chaeyoung’s head smacks against the wooden table which elicits a loud groan before her friend shoots up. 

“I said just five minutes…” she whines

“Shhhh” Tzuyu says silencing her friend as she skims page after page until the comes across the symbol again. Tzuyu pushed shoves the book forward towards her friend who was barely awake “Look, see, this is the symbol on the box right?” 

Chaeyoung studies it for a moment but she was barely conscious at the moment “uhh it is a symbol, yes..”

Tzuyu yanks the book back and starts reading the text.

‘Dormammu, an ancient being older than time itself. Banished to the dark dimension by the order for his crimes. He ruled the earth before the time of humans and was banished by the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto. He swore vengence and eternal torture to the Sorcerer Supreme.’ 

“Well, that can’t be good right? Mina is Sorcerer supreme now! Does it say how we can get to the dark dimension? Or how to beat Dalmation?” Chaeyoung asks now fully awake and taking a seat next to her taller friend. “Dormammu and it says here the only way to leave the dark dimension is to beat him and take the flames of regency, it gives him absolute control over the real.”

“All this reading and all we got is how to beat him and not how to go find Mina….” Chaeyoung stomps her feet annoyed by their fruitless work. 

Tzuyu nudges Chaeyoung to get her attention. “We should put the books back on the shelf and go tell Nayeon unnie what we found out maybe she has the other part of the answer…” 

The duo gets up and starts setting the books back in place before Chaeyoung turns to Tzuyu who feels dejected at being able to find out more. “She’s gonna be okay. Mina unnie is a total badass, she can handle herself and Nayeon will find a way to find her for sure.”

Tzuyu shares a hopeful smile with Chaeyoung. “I think so too!”

-

The dust settled as a fire blast connects with Mina’s barrier. She was doing her best to conserve energy and strength only using spells to maneuver away from danger and block incoming attacks but she was being pushed to her limit. 

The demon grins knowing the sorcerer was losing ground. “You aren’t worthy of being the protector of earth, you can barely protect yourself.” 

He dashes forward and shoves Mina back, slamming her towards a boulder that Mina’s slices in two with a sword she summons. She stumbles backwards and pants as she coughs up blood. “For someone with home field advantage you sure seem to struggle to beat the worst sorcerer supreme you’ve met.” 

The demon chuckles before firing a fiery beam directly at Mina only to be swiftly and easily deflected, sending the beam back to him using her sword. 

“C’mon I can summon beams too.” Mina taunts before slamming her palm on the ground which rumbles and cracks before a beam of blue lightning comes from right from below the demon and shoots him up in the sky before wrapping around him and pulling him back down with force and burying him slightly below the surface. 

Mina took the opening and summons a portal which she retreats into. It won’t be long before Dormammu emerges and there was no way she could beat the demon in a one on one fight in a realm where his powers are amplified by the crown he had on his waist.

\- 

Coming out of the portal, Mina stumbles through a cave she had apparently teleported to. She didn’t have much time now. She sits down. Clears her mind. She makes swift movements with her hands and the amulet around her neck open causing the cave the light up with a green glow. She focuses her thoughts and begins to levitate. 

Mina smiles to herself with one thought on her mind. Im Nayeon. 

“C’mon Nayeon. I believe in you.” she whispers to herself.

-

Nayeon walked back up towards the meditation chamber and again passes Mina’s Sanctum which the cloaks reacts at, this time by physically pulling Nayeon as hard as she can towards the room. 

Nayeon huffs out “Oh not this again.. I need to meditate and clear my mind and you’re putting me in a bad mood by doing this…”

She pulls back harder to fight the cloak but this time it seems determined to take her where it wants to go, not allowing Nayeon to even remove it from her shoulders. It drags her a few feet before Nayeon huffs and relents.

“Fine. You win. I guess I'll meditate here instead.” Nayeon says walking up the steps and flinging the door open. 

The room hit Nayeon like a ton of bricks.

She can smell Mina’s vanilla lotion in the air. Memories and fragments of Mina scattered around her private room. Nayeon takes a look around and spots a photo of Mina and her on their first date together that was framed and sat on the shelf. Nayeon picks it up and smiles fondly remembering that moment. 

_ “Mina I want a picture to commemorate our first date! Or else Jihyo and Jeongyeon will never believe we spent more than five minutes together without bickering and arguing” Nayeon says as she steadily pulled Mina along the crowd of people and towards a photobooth.  _

_ “You know they’ll believe it when they catch us making out in your lab since you can’t seem to not want to kiss me.” Mina playfully replies keeping pace and walking side by side with Nayeon now.  _

_ “What can I say, just something about you on my lap in my lab bench as I finish working on a new armor piece they feels oh so right.” Mina smacks Nayeon's arm and laughs at her comments.  _

_ “Smooth Nayeon, really, I’m surprised our first date isn’t you dragging me along for a test flight of your new Mark XXIV armor.”  _

_ Nayeon giggles “Would you blame me if it was? Our makeout sessions played a pivotal role in me finishing the suit, in fact it would be poetic if I did take you to a test flight wouldn't it?” she says wiggling her eyebrows and smirking at Mina who feigns being insulted. _

_ The couple laughed and shared jokes and snarky comments until they finally reached a photobooth. Nayeon pulls Mina in and inserts come coins. It triggers a countdown and on three Mina and Nayeon had their arms wrapped around each others necks and flashes the peace sign. The next one was a serious photo of the two, the couple mean mugging the camera. For the third one Nayeon gets bold and kisses Mina’s cheek who pretends to look horrified at the act.  _

_ For the last one Nayeon acted casual and played it cool posing and leaning back but Mina had other ideas. As the timer hit one, she slung her arm around Nayeon and cupped her cheek with her free hand and pulled Nayeon into a kiss just as the camera flashes.  _

Nayeon laughs back tears remembering that time. God did she miss Mina. She sets the picture down and her eyes trail the other items on the shelf. 

A penguin plushie she won Mina at a carnival, a ring Nayeon had fashioned from old pieces of her amor when she was bored one night. It seemed like everything Nayeon ever gave to Mina was kept here. Finally at the end of the long shelf was a glass case with Nayeon’s first ever arc reactor she made. It was crude and dirty, lacked the finesse and smooth clean touch Nayeon’s work has now, it was forge in a cave out of necessity and survival, not ideals and a want to protect the ones she cared about the most like her pieces now. 

The case that housed the arc reactor was engraved.

“Proof that Im Nayeon has a heart.” 

She sets the glass case down and holds back a tear as she turns to walk out of the room, unable to control her emotions with all these things that remind her of Mina surrounding her. The levitating cape makes a move to stop her.

Then she feels something in the air, the mood changes, there’s a slight breeze, it’s colder now. The smell of fresh, rage fueled inferno is in the air, and then it’s gone, replaced by a scent she’d recognize anywhere, a smell that at one point she proclaimed to Jeongyeon as the best smell in the world and it’s not even up for debate. It’s the smell of Mina’s cool green apple with a hint of mint shampoo that fills her nose.

“Mina. You’re here aren’t you.” Nayeon’s giddy. Call it separation anxiety or, call it being needy, hell call it what it is she wants Mina and can’t live, and refuses to live without her. 

The breeze picks up as if to reply to the question, the cloak tugs Nayeon to take her to the center of the room. “Mina told me something about this room, something about it being the center of her power and…. ugh.” Nayeon is frustrated trying hopelessly to remember, she looks up and is about to yell when she sees it in all its glorious old, mystical powers. 

“Son of a bitch-“ a powerful gust pushes her and she stumbles. “Sorry!”

The object Nayeon saw was a large orb, the Orb of Agamotto and it now was directly above her head and humming to life and emitting a mint green color, Mina’s color. 

Nayeon scrambles to the center of the room, the cloak following suit and attaching itself on her shoulders.

“Okay. Focus. Breath. All that stuff.” 

She closes her eyes, meditates, then begins to hover. She focuses on Mina, trying to feel her, she’s near. 

Nayeon opens her eyes and Mina was hovering, in the exact same pose she was in just a few feet away. 

“Mina!” Nayeon is quick to her feet and runs towards her girlfriend. 

The two embrace, holding each other like nothing but each other existed in the world, technically in this realm, it nothing did besides the two of them and their undying love. 

“I miss you!” They both say in unison before breaking out into fits of laughter. 

Nayeon couldn’t help it, tears flowed down her eyes, tears that quickly got wiped away by the cloak “stop that” she scolds the piece of cloth.

Mina chuckles at the sight “I see you two have gotten close, have I been replaced?” 

“Never, it’s way too needy and likes to play fetch for some reason….” 

“Please tell me you haven’t been throwing the black looking sword like a stick to play catch with the cloak..”

“It’s called the ebony blade, or have you been gone a I long you forgot the name of all your cool toys?” Nayeon replies with a loud laugh as she slaps Mina’s arm playfully. Mina shakes her head, normally that joke wouldn’t get a reaction from her, but it was Nayeon and like Mina said before everything Nayeon does was endearing to her. “Babe, it’s not funny I need to cleanse the artifact, it’s cursed… so the cloak might be cursed too now…”

Nayeon's face turns serious and looks at the cloak and whispers “are you cursed?!” before turning to look at Mina “is it cursed?!” 

“Hmmm” Mina inspects the cloak and smirks “no way to tell, it should only be a few days until we will know though, the cursed person usually ends up with the love of their life not wanting to give them any more kisses, and since the cloak is you…..” Mina says hiding her smile and keeping her best poker face. 

“Babe….that’s not funny! It’s not cursed right?” 

For a moment it was like nothing ever happened, no gargoyle, no fire demon, and Mina wasn’t off in a separate dimension in grave danger. But then reality hit back and the realm they were in shudder. 

Mina knows what’s coming “Shit! He’s found me.”

“Okay, well let’s just go the way I came! This is a room right, so you used a door from wherever and I used a from home, so let’s just go through with my door?” Nayeon begins as she turns around expecting Mina to follow.

Mina smiles brightly, gums showing, she really did love Nayeon. “That isn’t how this works babe…” 

Nayeon knew it. She knew despite how nice this was, it wouldn’t last. She tried to lighten the mood with jokes and playful conversation but at the end of the day reality is if she wanted Mina she’d have to come kick Dormammu’s ass and ride off into the sunset with the love of her life in hand, so now Nayeon has to be serious for everyone’s sake.

The pair shared one last embrace, one last soft kiss was all they could spare.

Nayeon mirrors Mina and they both sit back into the lotus position.

“I can summon a portal to where you physically are with the orb can’t I?” Nayeon figured it out.

“Yes” Mina nods and beams proudly at her girlfriend before continuing. “But it takes a great deal of concentration and power to open the portal and once here we need to defeat the ruler of the dimension to be able to leave. We need to take his source of power. The crown.”

“So it’s a one way trip if we lose?” 

Mina nods solemnly “Yes.”

Nayeon takes a breath, readies herself, and is serious for all about a minute before her playful smile is back. “Got it. Open portal. Kick demons ass. Destroy his ugly crown. Bring my girlfriend home. Then maybe try this new Açaí bowl place I think you might like because I’m kinda scared to go alone. Did I miss leaving anything out?”

“Yeah.” 

Nayeon knits her brows in confusion “really? what?”

“The endless kisses I expect when I get back.” Mina grins getting one over Nayeon.

The realm shakes again and the smell of sulfur and flames is back. “Kick his ass for me Mina, hold on I’ll be there soon. I love you.” The realm they shared starts to fade.

“I love you too babe.”

-

The next moments fly by and Nayeon finds herself back in Mina’s sanctum, back in a Mina-less reality but instead of the same woeful look she had on her face all week she had a genuine smile for the first time since Mina disappeared. 

Not even falling to the ground from levitating can take the mile wide grin she had. 

“Okay. We’re back in work mode guys!” 

A loud crash coming from the door snaps Nayeon up to attention as she sees the Chaeyoung and Tzuyu come tumbling through the entrance.

“I told you she was busy!” Chaeyoung groans “get off me you’re heavy!” 

Tzuyu slowly gets up making sure to lean slightly into her whining younger friend. 

“Unnie!” Chaeyoung starts as Tzuyu helps her up and the two get to their feet. “We found a way to beat Dormammu? We need to destroy his source of power, the crown of uh Agamotto? ” 

“Flames of regency.” Corrected Tzuyu.

“Yeah! That thing!” Chaeyoung snaps her finger “Also we’re gonna need lots of like weapons? Probably the magical kind? He's a demon that rules over his dimension and is hellbent on destroying Earth which he needs to kill Mina to do since she’s sorcerer supreme! 

“Guys…” Nayeon starts

“Also he has this like beef with Mina? Well not really Mina? but like the other magical people like Mina that came before her but I guess now she’s them?” Chaeyoung frowns in confusion “honestly I’m not so sure how it works…”

“Guys!” Nayeon says a little louder getting her two rambling friends attention. “I know how to find Mina!” 

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu looked at each other and high fived. 

Tzuyu high fives the shorter girl. “Awesome! So what do we need to do?” 

Nayeon ponders for a second, her face unreadable, the two younger recognize it, it’s the look she has when she’s focused on her work, or when she’s pondering some deep thought that she doesn’t want others to know about. 

“I got it. How long until Jihyo gets back?” Nayeon says scrambling up 

-

Jihyo stood on the command deck of her ship staring at the great dark unknown. The Earth's solar system is just coming into view. 

Jihyo smiles, her head filling with thoughts of home. Of Nayeon and Mina walking around like they seem handcuffed to each other and how sickeningly sweet they are with each other, to think how well they compliment each other when they absolutely couldn't stand each other in the beginning.

She thinks of Sana and her cheery attitude that brightens the mood and of Momo and how she is the exact opposite of Sana yet they partner together perfectly. 

Then she wonders to Chaeyoung and Tzuyu who are mirror images of Nayeon and Mina which is probably why the shorter girl drives her best friend insane all the time. Then of Jeongyeon who despite having to learn how to be a god of thunder still has time to put others before herself, sometimes to a fault.

Finally she thinks of home, that thought alone was what kept her going on lonely nights like this because sure, Nayeon did her best to fill the ship with movies and books and memories of their time together, even had the ships AI programmed to play Nayeon's jokes daily (which Jihyo ended up muting a day into her year long trip), sometimes even a video they took together during their many adventures would play, but none of it could ever quite make up for home. 

Jihyo beamed to herself.

“Space, the final frontier.” A voice comes from behind her. 

“You’re awake?” Jihyo’s voice filled with concern.

“Yes, and I made you coffee.” Dahyun comes up standing next to her with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “Thank you.” Jihyo silently says as she takes the cup and places a kiss on her girlfriend's cheek who was more than happy to return it. 

“Gross, coffee breath.” 

Dahyun chuckles as she places another kiss on her girlfriend's cheek. “Take it or leave it Park.” 

“I think I can learn to live with it.” Jihyo laughs pulling Dahyun closer who removes the shield Jihyo had on her back and sharing the blanket with her. 

“Surprised you aren’t passed out.” Jihyo says as they both sit crossed legged, staring at the galaxy coming closer and closer “the fight took a lot out of you…”

Dahyun yawns and stretches a bit “Yeah but honestly? I couldn't rest knowing we would be seeing them soon. We haven’t been able to do anything but send emails back and forth since we left the solar system. I miss them.” 

Jihyo nods and takes a slow sip “we should be able to call them any minute now, entering the solar system in just a few moments. We can see Chae’s favorite planet Pluto to our left soon enough” 

Dahyun playfully shoves her, careful not to drop her coffee “Mocking our friend who isn’t here to respond? That's low Park!” 

Jihyo laughs knowing Chaeyoung would grumble but smile at the joke

The command deck AI intrudes on their conversation.

INCOMING CALL

“Answer” Jihyo states and the windshield of the ship goes black and a video call is put through. 

“Unnie! How long until you get back?” It was Chaeyoung whose face filled half the screen, something was wrong and Jihyo can feel it she gets up and Dahyun follows. 

“Chae what's wrong?” She spots a closing portal in the background and Jeongyeon holding a trembling Nayeon. “Is Nayeon okay? What happened?”

“I- I don’t know one minute Mina was here and we kicked this monster's ass and Nayeon was totally badass then this flame demon just threatens Mina and takes her away..”

Tzuyu appears on the screen now. “We need you unnie. Mina was taken. We don’t know where.”

Jihyo hurries to the pilot seat and checks the navigation. “On this fuel level I can be there in about a week.” 

Tzuyu nods “Okay get here soon and safely. I gotta go, I’ll keep you updated.” 

The feed cuts off and the view of the approaching solar system returns. 

Dahyun and Jihyo share a look of concern before holding each others hand and finding comfort in it. This would be a long week. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. I hope everyone enjoys the fic and please don't hesitate to let me know what you think the the comments. I am @/hoodienayeon on twitter, feel free to follow or lemme know how you feel about the story so far! I really appreciate you all. Feel free to kudos and comment :) 
> 
> The next chapter won't be out for 2-3 weeks but I have a small Chaeyu one-shot and a 3mix one shot coming soon so look forward to that. 
> 
> In the next chapter. Jihyo and Dahyun come home, Nayeon and Jeongyeon go on a trip. The rest get ready for the battle ahead.


	5. Side story: Grappling hooks and Web Slingers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chaeyoung and Tzuyu race, Nayeon and Mina are on vacation but still find out, Sana gives excellent advice.

“This isn’t a good idea Chaeng” the taller girl begins as she and her girlfriend got up on the snow filled rooftop in the middle of a snow storm. 

“Oh you worry too much! Nayeon unnie is with Mina in Hawaii so she won’t know!” Chaeyoung assures her girlfriend. 

Tzuyu remains silent as they trudge on the rooftop, boots crushing the snow covered building.

“I lost because of bullshit last time! I want a rematch.” Chaeyoung snorts “ and you’re going down this time Chou!” 

Tzuyu sighs loudly. She really wasn’t liking where this is going. Losing the race last time had hurt Chaeyoung’s pride and her girlfriend was determined to set things right.

Chaeyoung put her mask on and made sure her web slingers worked properly, Nayeon had taken off the restrictions on most of the features which made Chaeyoung feel emboldened knowing she had a wider array of tools to win the race with. 

“Please don’t make me do this Chae.. Can’t we just say you won? I promise I’ll stop bragging, it’s cold up here and my arm is still sore from that arm-bar Momo put me in last night during practice after I threatened to eat the last slice of pizza in the fridge.” Tzuyu pleads knowing the consequences if they get caught, her mind flashes to extra training they went through with Mina and Nayeon and she shudders.

“No. We’re going to do this race, time to settle this once and for all.” Chaeyoung says while absentmindedly tapping the display on her wrist as she tries to make sure all her settings were correct, Chaeyoung wasn’t letting anything go to chance this time.

Tzuyu groans as she pulls her bow out and checks the bowstring. 

“See this apple here?” Tzuyu says producing an apple from her backpack. 

“Yes I see an apple in your hands and I’m wondering why you have an apple in your backpack.”

“It’s a healthy snack, more importantly, imagine this apple” Tzuyu holds the apple up “is us, and this arrow,” she pulls and arrow from her quiver “is Nayeon Unnie.”

“Ok and…” 

As the words leave Chaeyoung's mouth she tosses the apple and nocks and arrow into her bowstring and lets loose. The apple is pierced by the arrow midair and pinned into a wall. 

“That’s what’s gonna happen to us, the apple, when Nayeon Unnie, the arrow, finds out about us racing from building to building in below freezing weather.”

Chaeyoung groans “will you just get ready already? If you win you can have whatever you want! If I win you have to stop bragging and…. go to an art exhibit with me this weekend?” 

Tzuyu scoffs at the idea insulted Chaeyoung thinks she wouldn’t just go with her girlfriend because she asked, but she wanted the prize so she feigned disinterest for a second before smiling at Chaeyoung. 

Tzuyu smirks “You’re on!”

The taller girl zips her hoodie up and sets her hood on before adjusting her scarf to cover her mouth. She shivers a little from the cold gust of air blowing. “Aren’t you cold Chae?” 

“Nope, Nayeon unnie put a built in heater in my suit! Pretty neat right?” Chaeyoung hits a button and steam comes exhausting out of her suir. “And stop trying to distract me! I need to be focused!”

“I was being concerned about my girlfriend but alright spider-lad.” Tzuyu says in fake annoyance as her girlfriend grumbled and whines about the nickname Nayeon used on her.

After her gear is set Tzuyu pulls her cell phone from her pocket wanting to tease Chaeyoung for a bit. She turns the video feature on and hits the record button first pointing the camera at Chaeyoung before turning it on to herself. 

“Nayeon Unnie, I just wanna say, I told Chaeyoung this was a bad bad idea, it’s snowing in Seoul right now, I’m freezing and shivering while she brags about the heater you out in her suit, and Chaeyoung wants to race” her short girlfriend shouts back interrupting the video trying to wrestle for the phone. “Tzuyu what the hell are you doing!” 

Tzuyu glares at Chaeyoung before continuing with her video.

“Like I said, it’s 5:03 PM on December the 29th and Chaeyoung is making me do this, please come help me Nayeon Unnie! If we get caught I don’t want extra training, I told Chaeyoung this is a bad idea“ Tzuyu pouts and makes sad faces on the video as she holds down her laugh long enough to end the call. 

“I hate you.” 

Tzuyu loses it and starts laughing as she saves the video and pockets her phone.

“Delete that!” Chaeyoung whines. 

“No.” 

“Okay delete it if I win!” Tzuyu ponders for a second, “Not a chance, you drag me out her in the middle of a winter snowstorm and want to race to the Tallest skyscraper in Seoul on grappling hooks and webs and don’t expect me to have some insurance for myself if Nayeon finds out, which she will by the way, Hawaii or not.” Tzuyu laughs enjoying Chaeyoung’s pouty face before squeezing her cheek. “Now put your game face on Son, you got me out here, now I’m gonna wipe them floor with you.”

“You’re on!” 

The two rush towards the ledge “Remember, we have to get to the tower, then traverse to the top before the other one, and you can’t crawl! you have to sling up!” Tzuyu says as she knocks an arrow into her bow. 

“Yeah, yeah I got it, worry about catching me.” Chaeyoung confidently says. 

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung exchange a glance “ready?” 

They nod in unison. 

“Go.” They both jump.

-

Chaeyoung was definitely faster this time. She was reaching greater heights and with more training under her belt is now able to swing herself faster and further . Tzuyu lagged slightly behind but she kept up, relying on her skill and training to make up for what she lacked in superhuman ability.

The first few buildings Tzuyu had a lead, but Chaeyoung was a fast learner and was quick to catch up. It had been neck and neck for the following minutes until Chaeyoung slings herself forward after using a run up on the side of a slick skyscraper to gain momentum. 

She quickly passed Tzuyu and didn’t hold herself back with the goading and early celebrations.

“Keep up Tzu!” Chaeyoung says as she waited and hung on a ledge wanting her girlfriend to catch up before slinging to the next one just as Tzuyu was about to reach her. “Too slow! Care to try again?” 

Chaeyoung waited again on the next building and just when Tzuyu was about to reach her she again slung to the next building. Her voice smug taking in the glory of flustering and almost beating her girlfriend. 

To Tzuyu’s credit she fought past the annoyance and kept up as best she could. “Hey is something wrong with your bow or are you slower than I remember?” Tzuyu hears Chaeyoung taunt over her communication device, she muted it. 

“It’s no fun when you don’t react you know!” Chaeyoung shouts dangling herself upside down and swinging back and forth waiting for Tzuyu to catch up to her. 

There were only a few buildings left and Chaeyoung hung around one of the final ones before they had to climb the tower. Tzuyu readies her arrow and fired, hitting the roof of the building and swinging to it. 

Chaeyoung sees Tzuyu coming and gets ready to take off to finish the race. She swings herself back up a little to carelessly and her leg gets caught in her own webbing she was hanging on to causing her to dangle from the building just as Tzuyu runs by the ledge, her fast movement kicking the built up snow down towards a helpless Chaeyoung, who swears she sees Tzuyu smirks as she runs by her. 

Tzuyu was about halfway up the skyscraper and fires off another grappling arrow and starts to rappel upwards before Chaeyoung finally caught up. 

Chaeyoung climbs up at the same speed Tzuyu was going and glares “you did that on purpose!” Tzuyu hides her grin. “No clue what you’re talking about, now stop distracting me.”

Chaeyoung let’s out indignant in laugh. “Distract you? I can swing from here to the top in a second! I don’t need to distract-“ her girlfriend hits a button on her bow and it turns into begins to rapidly pull her up. 

“I know, I was distracting you though!” Tzuyu says with a cheeky smile as she flies upwards and waves at Chaeyoung who whined out loud. 

-

Tzuyu sat satisfied and happy as she swung her feet over the ledge while waiting for Chaeyoung, who was in no doubt in an annoyed mood now that she lost after all that bragging and taunting.

She sees a hand grab the ledge next to her crushing the built up snow that sat perfectly on it. 

Chaeyoung pulls herself all the way up “Hey better luck next time Chae! If only you weren’t celebrating-“ 

Chaeyoung tosses snowball at Tzuyu who blocks the incoming ambush with her bow before scrambling away from the ledge. 

“Chae you’re such a sore loser.” The two burst into laughter and a frantic dash trying to grab as much snow as possible.

“I’m the sore loser?! You didn’t even wanna race! You should have let me win!” Chaeyoung huff tossing snowball after snowball at Tzuyu who gracefully ducks and dodges each one. 

“What the matter Chae, is your arm broken or are you just this bad at throwing snowballs?” Tzuyu mimics using her girlfriends own insult against her.

“Stop! Running!” Chaeyoung gets frustrated and slings herself up towards a greater height and tosses a snowball and hits her girlfriend in the back of her head. Tzuyu laughs off the snowball hit and raises her arms in surrender. Chaeyoung slings towards her girlfriend thinking she gave up.

Chaeyoung takes her mask off and puts an arm around Tzuyu as they both sit back on the ledge of the building. “I guess we're even now.” Chaeyoung turns to grin at Tzuyu but she’s met with a pile of snow softly smacking into her face.

Chaeyoung blows the snow away and pouts.

“Now we’re even.” Tzuyu grins and kisses her girlfriends puffed out cheeks. 

Chaeyoung puts a hand around Tzuyus waist and pulls her closer. Her girlfriends clothes wet from the snowball fight as she feels her shaking ever so slightly.

“Cold?” Chaeyoung asks voice filled with concern. 

Tzuyu nods as she shivers a bit more now. “Didn’t expect to be out here this long, forgot to wear a warmer jacket.” 

Chaeyoung grins “You don’t need a jacket” she hops on Tzuyu’s lap and settles in comfortably “I’ll warm you up baby.” 

“Chae you’re soaked too and I’m even colder now.” 

“Shhhh” Chaeyoung presses a button on the touchpad on her wrist and suddenly the suit becomes warmer and aem steams escapes the suit, warming Chaeyoung and her girlfriends. “Isn’t this suit amazing? Unnie thought of everything!” 

Tzuyu nods and pecks kisses on Chaeyoung cheek who squirm in faux disgust but not making any action to actually get away. 

Chaeyoung looks up at Tzuyu who sat enjoying the moment. “Think Nayeon unnie will find out?” 

“Almost certainly.”

“Will you still go to the art exhibit with me?” Chaeyoung looks at and puppy dogs Tzuyu. 

Tzuyu snorts a laugh out “I would have gone regardless you idiot.” 

Chaeyoung lets out a happy shriek and cuddles Tzuyu closer, for warmth of course. “Will you share the blame with me too?” 

Tzuyu laughs “how about you make me dinner for winning and I’ll consider the idea of suffering extra training sessions with Mina and Nayeon Unnie with you.” 

“Deal!” 

The couple hold hands and sit as they watch snow fall down over Seoul, it’s freezing but they didn’t care as long as they had each other. A beautiful moment, on a freezing day, born from a ridiculous competition.

-

Dinner was cleared and Tzuyu did the dishes while Chaeyoung picked a movie. They had gotten back home at just before nine at night, just in time to catch a sneaking Momo and Sana coming back from their own date, Momo had a lopsided grin and Sana had her signature smile on her face. 

They wave happily at each other before going back to their own little bubbles of happiness.

Tzuyu dried off her hands and sat down on the couch to an awaiting Chaeyoung with covered her girlfriend in blankets immediately.

Chaeyoung said she wanted to watch this really old movie called Return of the Jedi, they sat with a blanket over the top of their heads like a hood and in comfortable silence while munching on a bowl of popcorn in between the two of them. 

Then they hear Tzuyu’s phone rings. 

Chaeyoung pauses the movie so Tzuyu checks who’s calling.

“We’re doomed.” Tzuyu groans.

Chaeyoung’s eyes grow wide like her girlfriends. 

“It’s Nayeon Unnie!” The phone rings again and again and neither are unsure whether to ignore it or answer and face her wrath. 

“It’s gonna get worse if you don’t answer.” Sana’s cherry voice comes from the kitchen as she grabs a bottle of wine and two glasses “i’d answer it!” she says before skipping away back to wherever she and Momo had holed up at for the night. 

Tzuyu presses the green accept button. 

“Chou Tzuyu!” Nayeon’s face is taking up the whole screen. 

“Ah Unnie! You’re calling? Shouldn’t you be enjoying the beach with-“

“You two are in so much trouble when I get home.” Nayeon fakes being calm not wanting to make a scene in public.

Muffled sounds can be heard in the background and a whine can be heard before Mina appears on the video call screen 

“Hey guys! Nayeon and I are very disappointed-”

“Disappointed? I’m pissed off!” Nayeon can be heard in the background shouting.

Mina continues “-with you guys for not listening. Racing on rooftops is dangerous especially in bad weather like this, but Nayeon came up with a solution.”

“We’re taking you me bow and web slingers away!” Mina looks away from the phone and laughs before scolding her girlfriend “Nayeon!” Tzuyu thinks she hears a sorry being muttered in the background. 

“Like a said Nayeon found a solution, she made a virtual reality environment where you two can race with grappling hooks and web slingers as much as you want, it even keeps score and all that stuff! So please be safe and don’t do such reckless things again alright? Well see when we get home! Love you!” Mina waves about to end the call but Nayeon snatches it from her girlfriend.

“Babe c’mon I wanna go to the beach!” Mina whines in the background away from the screen now, sounding like the complete opposite of her normally composed, calm self.

“I just wanna say bye to my two idiots- I mean friends!” Nayeon’s face comes into full view now. “You two are so lucky Mina is here!” Nayeon pouts playfully. “When I get back you guys are still on the hook for extra training!” She pretends to be upset before smiling at the camera. 

Chaeyoung sneezes loudly which causes Nayeon to groan. “Tzuyu make sure your girlfriend gets some cold medicine before she goes to bed.”

Tzuyu nods “Got it Unnie!” 

“Nayeoniee! Minari is getting impatient. I guess you don’t wanna see me in this new bikini I got for you?” Mina’s whiny voice rings teasing her girlfriend and flustering her. 

Nayeons’ face is red in embarrassment as she turns to no doubt look at Mina. “Gotta go! Love you guys! Bye bye!” 

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung hear shuffling and giggling in the background before the call ends.

“Whoa. Mina Unnie really saved us there!” Chaeyoung clap, resting back on the sofa. 

“Yeah, and Nayeon Unnie made us a new training program just so we can be safer.” Tzuyu says with a soft smile on her face as she reaches for the remote to continue the movie but Chaeyoung stops her.

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking aren’t you?” Chaeyoung smiles with a hint of mischief in her eyes.

“That we are lucky to have such caring people in our lives and that we should always be thankful for everything they do for us?” 

“What? Okay that and…” she grins “we should try the new program Nayeon Unnie made!” Chaeyoung was already on her feet.

“No.” Tzuyu says firmly before hitting the play button. 

Chaeyoung sticks her lower lip out and lets herself be pulled down by her girlfriend. “You’re no fun…” 

Tzuyu raises a brow and smirk “oh? So I suppose you don’t wanna go to the new art exhibit tomorrow with me then?” 

“You got tickets already?” Chaeyoung eyes fill with excitement cuddling her girlfriend.

“Yep, but seeing as how I’m now fun” Tzuyu pulls her phone out and taps it a few times “guess I’ll cancel the tickets.”

“No! No, I’m kidding Tzuyu, you’re plenty fun!” Chaeyoung says taking the taller girls phone away. “Remember when you did that thing with the arrow and then….”

“Don’t patronize me.” Tzuyu says flatly, stopping her girlfriend from rambling on before pulling her closer.

“How about we finish this movie, then you take some cold medicine and we go to the art exhibit tomorrow.” 

“Fine, but I want cuddles!” Chaeyoung says kissing her girlfriends neck and burying her face in the crook of it.

“I suppose I can do that.” Tzuyu laughs and gets comfortable with her girlfriend hanging on her before draping a blanket over the two.

The movie ends before and Tzuyu bends down to kiss Chaeyoung who was resting comfortably with her head now on her lap. 

“I love you Chae” Tzuyu softly says who gets a soft hum from Chaeyoung in reply causing her to smile. 

“Love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a one-shot side story I wrote for Chaeyu day that's near and dear to me. 
> 
> Sorry not a new chapter but a one shot of for Chaeyu day dedicated to my friend @/miabasher4lyf on twitter. 
> 
> As always lemme know what you think on twitter or in comments I am @/hoodienayeon. 
> 
> In the next chapter, Jihyo and Dahyun come home, Nayeon and Jeongyeon go on a trip. The rest get ready for the battle ahead.


	6. Right on time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihyo returns and is a bit grumpy. Nayeon and Jeongyeon visit the ocean. Also Mina and Nayeon reunite.

The last week had been the longest of Jihyo’s life. She had been stuck in space helpless while her friends were all hurting. She didn’t get all the details at first but it slowly became clear by what each member said to her. 

“So a box with a crown in it came to life and then sucked Mina into a black hole?” Dahyun asked as she sat across from Jihyo who looked like she had barely gotten any sleep last night. 

Jihyo took a sip of coffee and nodded. “That’s the gist of it.”

Dahyun pondered for a moment, she had a million questions to ask.  _ What would they do? Where is Mina? How can they help? Are they close to home now? _ But only one in her mind seemed like the correct one to ask. 

“How’s Nayeon taking it?” 

Jihyo wasn’t sure how to answer this one considering she hasn’t spoken to her best friend since before it happened. “Uh…. Jeongyeon and Sana say she’s doing fine..”

“But?” Dahyun says eyebrows furrowed knowing Jihyo and by the look her girlfriend is giving her she knows she is leaving details out of the story. Dahyun knows because she knows Jihyo and anything involving her long time best friend will always be of the utmost importance in her life so much so that she’d lose sleep over it. 

Jihyo coughs, shuffles, looks away, does anything really, to get away from the question. But dahyun is persistent, she reaches over the table and takes her girlfriends hands in hers. “What is it babe?” Dahyun spoke softly, not wanting to feel like Jihyo was forced to speak when she wasn’t.

“It’s just….” Jihyo starts but stops, ponders for a second, gears turning in her head trying to find the right words. “I haven’t actually spoken to Nayeon… since…” Jihyo takes a measured breath “well since Mina was taken.” Another moment passes “and it sucks. The only thing I can think of when thinking about my best friend is the image of her trembling in Jeongyeon’s arms the night we got the message.”

Dahyun squeezes her girlfriends hands tighter as she listened, letting her speak and not wanting to interrupt.

“Jeongyeon says she’s shutting us out again… and the last time she did was way before any of you and she was in such a dark place that I never want to see my friend like that again.” Jihyo held back her tears, choking them down but it was evident in her eyes that this was one of the reasons she hasn’t been sleeping. The other being the main issue at hand. 

Mina and her fight against a demon lord.

“And Mina she- I can’t even begin to think about how she feels- does she feel abandoned? Does she know we’re trying are best to-“ 

“Ji, don’t. Mina knows we’re coming, she would ever think we turned our backs on her because we would never ever even consider that possibility.” Dahyun tips Jihyo chin forward “Look at me babe, I promise everything will be okay. Nayeon will figure something out, make an outlandishly crazy plan that works because that’s what Nayeon does!”

“Yeah I know it’s just, I feel so helpless out here.” 

“I know what you mean. Why did we choose to go on this mission again?” Dahyun grabs Jihyo’s cup and sips a bit of coffee.

“Well, I remember you thinking it would be romantic to be stuck in a spaceship heading to an unknown planet to check to see if Jeongyeon's premonition about a magical stone is real….” 

Dahyun nods “right… remember not to let me do stupid things like agreeing to go on a year long trip again…. I love you, but this was just awful”

Jihyo rolls her eyes and laughs. Her smile back as her worries are sated for now. “You’re telling me that fighting against the giant worm thing and it’s minions wasn’t badass?” 

“I wouldn’t say that no, actually it’s kinda gross how I was eaten and how I had to rip the worm thing from its inside out so I could save you…”

“My hero, so brave, so romantic!” Jihyo laughs holding Dahyuns hands and pulling her into a kiss. They stare at each other with their noses touching and they just sit and enjoy the moment. It was brief but it meant the world to the two.

Then the moment was gone as the ships AI alerted them about their impending arrival on Earth. Jihyo and Dahyun both headed to the command deck and strapped into their seats. Entering the atmosphere was the worst part of landing and Jihyo hated it the most. She shut her eyes and braces for it when she felt dahyun's hand holding hers and gripping it tightly. Nothing needed to be said, the gesture spoke loudly.

-

As soon as Jihyo’s ship lands and the bay doors open revealing herself and Dahyun she was immediately bombarded by the other girls, each wanting to welcome her back. They all formed a mini circle around Dahyun and Jihyo. 

“I missed you all too.” Jihyo says holding each member and hugging them tightly. She gets through each one but notices Nayeon wasn’t there. 

“Where’s Nay-“ she looks up and sees her friend grinning widely and leaning near the back of the hangar. The other girls had moved on to Dahyun so Jihyo rushes over to Nayeon who meets her halfway before the two embrace in a tight hug. 

Nayeon spoke into Jihyo’s shoulders “I’m sorry Ji. I’ve been shutting you out, all of you, but it probably hurt you the most because you weren’t here to smack some sense into me.”

Jihyo pulls away first and playfully punches her friend's arm while trying to stop herself from having tears come out. “Asshole!”

Nayeon rubs her arm “Okay, ouch.” Nayeon fakes injury ”You know you have super strength right? Not regular human strength.”

“Shut it.” Jihyo says glaring at her friend but each of them know it isn’t meant to be anything be filled with faux annoyance.

Dahyun and the rest of the team made their way to Nayeon and Jihyo. Nayeon looks up to see her blonde friend and hugs her. “Been awhile Dahyun. You keeping Jihyo safe?”

“Of course Unnie! Just like you asked! I was eaten by a giant snake monster for Jihyo!”

“You what?!” Nayeon turned to look at Jihyo who held her arms up in defeat. 

“Like a metaphorical snake?” Chaeyoung asks in the background.

“No! An actual worm snake thing? It was the planet monster thing and we upset it while we were looking for the magic stone Jeongyeon told us about.” Jihyo corrected who produced a gasp from Nayeon.

“It’s fine though I just kinda ripped my way through the worm monster to escape.” Dahyun says grinning. “And only a slightly broken arm to show for it!”

“Okay wow that’s absolutely disgusting.” Tzuyu and Nayeon both say in unison prompting the other to stop and gape as the two are polar opposites of one another but agreeing on something.

Tzuyu turns red and she turns away from the attention before Nayeon speaks up. “Alright Chaeyoung, Tzuyu’s my new squire. Sorry buddy!” Nayeon says to draw attention away from her tall friend who notices what she did and smiles at her Unnie. 

Chaeyoung whined making a fuss about wanting to be Nayeon’s squire but to her horror the conversation had past and they had moved on. 

“Okay well now that I have my band of super power friends back together I guess this is the perfect time for me to let you all know that I found a way to get to Mina, but you won’t like it…” Nayeon takes a breath. “So I can open a portal to where Mina is since I have an object that’s connected to her magical amulet.”

“Kinda like a phone that can only call each other then?” Jihyo asks trying to understand the situation.

“Exactly like that except for you know… magical.”

Jeongyeon beams with joy and calls for her hammer “okay so let’s go get her!”

“Well… it’s not that simple. Mina is in a dimension that’s controlled by the demon that resides there.”

Chaeyoung nods “Yeah. He’s been banished there because of his crimes so kinda like that old movie Harry Potter in Azkaban? I think”

“Prisoner of Azkaban!” All the older girls should be in the hangar.

“Okay well it’s an old movie so I guess you guys would know.” Chaeyoung says sticking her tongue out to tease them. 

Tzuyu clears her throat and tries to correct the derailed conversation. “To follow up on that, what Chaeyoung was saying is that the demon has a bone to pick with Mina since she’s now sorcerer supreme and he was banished from Earth, the previous realm he lived in by a sorcerer supreme like Mina and since she’s kinda like taken the mantle he’s gonna kill her, break all the spells and barriers stopping him from coming back to earth then come and enslave has all.”

The group got silent. 

-

Mina struggled to keep up as the demons' incoming attacks grew stronger and more ferocious as the being began to sense Mina’s weakening state.

“Come sorcerer, show me your strength, no more games” he fires a blast that shatters Minas barrier causing her to tumble straight of the ledge she had been clinging on to. 

The demon appears behind her as she lands and kicks Mina with so much force she’s sent flying across the searing field of fire and tumbling into a boulder.

Mina struggles to find her footing, her body burning in pain, the long drawn out battle taking its toll on her now but she pushes past the pain, pushes past the inner voice screaming at her to stay down and accept defeat, instead she focuses on a memory, a moment that she keeps near to her heart. 

_ “You should have more confidence Mina, believe in yourself, and not that false confidence you put up as a front, I can see through it.” Nayeon lazily said as she cuddled into Mina who was perplexing over whether or not to let a seemingly mystical presence stay on earth as opposed to doing her duty and expelling it.  _

_ “Huh?”  _

_ “I said you should be more confident” Nayeon props herself up “I can see you’re struggling with the decision and second guessing yourself.”  _

_ Mina sighs and leans into her girlfriend's body. Nayeon wraps her arms around her and lays soft kisses on her cheek “I believe in you. Make the choice you know to be right.” Somehow her girlfriend knew exactly what she was feeling without any need for her to say.  _

_ So Mina took her advice, the next day she did something that has never been done by a sorcerer supreme, she granted sanctuary on earth for the homeless mystical being.  _

_ The words of her girlfriend echoes in her mind every time she comes across a tough decision or when she thinks about giving up.  _

_ “I believe in you.” _

The demon stands over Mina, a blast of energy in hand ready to end Mina. “You lack the strength of your predecessors.” The demon fires the blast.

A blinding white flash appears before the ground rumbles and collapses leaving a crater in the wake of the energy’s impact. The demon hovers over the newly formed hole and smirks satisfied with himself.

“Weak.” 

“You underestimate me.” Mina says appearing behind the demon with a smirk and slashing at him with her sword which is quickly deflected, Mina uses her free hand to fire a blast of energy and creates some distance between the two of them sending them both flying away.

The demon's flames brighten as he becomes angered. “Delaying the inevitable or perhaps waiting for your friends to come?” Mina freezes as the demon continues “It’s going to be quite a sight to defeat you all” he chuckles lowly.

Dormammu fly’s forwards and turns himself into a blazing missile heading right towards Mina who raises her hand and summons the mirror dimension to block the incoming attack, trapping the demon there for a moment before he breaks free. 

“You thought you could call your precious girlfriend for help without me allowing it? I own this realm!” Mina hears as Mina fails at creating another portal trying to duck out of the way, she hears a crackle and Mina turns in time to deflect another ball of flame.

_ ‘Hurry Nayeon.’  _

Mina thinks to herself before switching gears and going on the attack. She steps forward and moves to be on the attack. She was done running.

-

“So your plan is to create a portal and get us all pitted against an ancient demon probably older than the universe itself, take his source of power in his own dimension, the destroy the realm and leave with Mina.” Jihyo says as she repeats each step Nayeon has laid out for her.

“Yep, and be home in time to try the new açaí bowl place Mina will probably like.” Nayeon nods as she takes a bite of an apple. 

“And what happens if we lose?”

Nayeon takes another bite “then we lose and the universe is lost.” 

Jihyo stops and looks pointedly at Nayeon. “Nayeon.”

“Jihyo. It’s simple. If we don’t go and beat him, Mina dies, and he comes for our world. To me it isn’t much of a choice.”

“I agree. But this is dangerous. This is something entirely different than crazy warlords or arms dealers, we can’t just jump into this without…”

Nayeon sighs, because she understood her friend, understood the repercussions of it all, understood what’s at stake maybe better than anyone. “Look, if you aren’t game for it then don’t come, but I’m going, I need to do this.” Her tone was soft but it left no room for any sort of argument. 

Jihyo wants to argue, wants deeply to stop Nayeon from being so reckless but how could she when she knows if the reverse was happening and Jihyo had Dahyun taken from her, there wasn’t anything anyone could say that would stop her from getting her back, so she would be a hypocrite to stop Nayeon or even argue against it. 

The room lights up with a laugh, Jihyo’s laugh, it was refreshing to finally hear it after so long. “God I was gone for a year and Mina has made you even more of a sap then when I left.” 

Nayeon’s cheek redden up in embarrassment as if she was a high schooler being teased about her crush as opposed to a world famous billionaire who fights crime in her spare time.

“I-“ Nayeon turns away wanting to find a comeback but nothing comes to mind, so she chooses to huff and take another bite of her apple “good to know your back then” she says mouth full of crunchy apple goodness.

“Well, I can’t let Jeongyeon suffer alone with you around, the amount of emails I got from her complaining about-“ Jihyo starts but is rudely interrupted by half an apple being thrown her way that she quickly ducks below as it lands right in the trash in behind her.

“Oh shut it Park.” Nayeon huffs before closing the distance between the two and pulling Jihyo in for a hug before the younger friend can pull away.

“Thank you.” Nayeon whispers and the soft hum she gets in response is all the assurance she needs, all the understanding she needs to know that Jihyo would follow her to the ends of it.

“Let’s go get your girl, I’m sick of seeing you moping around.” Jeongyeon adds jumping into the hug uninvited. 

“And maybe save the world while we’re at it.” Jihyo adds in her teasing tone once they all uncling Nayeon from them. 

Nayeon rolls her eyes “that too I guess.” she turns to the rest of the girls “if any of you guys aren't okay with this, you don’t have to go. I won’t think any less of you guys. Please don’t feel the need to do this because of me.”

“We’re going.” Everyone said almost in unison. 

Nayeon looks around the room, Tzuyu has Chaeyoung cuddles in her lap uncomfortably on one office chair, Sana and Momo next to each other both with a look of determination in them and their hands finding each other’s, and Dahyun who had a sling around her shoulders for her arm, tired from her journey but still there for her. Nayeon knew she had the best friends anyone could have asked for.

“Thank you, all of you.” Nayeon says her voice almost a whisper.

Sana jumps up and hugs Nayeon and Momo does the same the move not unexpected from Sana as she’s naturally a person to easily show her affection to those she cares about but Momo was a bit more guarded and careful when to show her emotions, but she’s always had a soft spot with Nayeon. 

“Yah! You don’t think we’d actually not go do you! Minari is our friend too and we know just how hard headed and stubborn she can be just like you!” Sana squeals out laughing at just how incredibly ridiculous her friends notion of any of them not going with Nayeon was.

Momo was a far less loud and chipper about it but her sentiment was the same just from the squeeze she gave Nayeon as they hugged. “Like I’d let you do something this stupid without me to bail you out.” Momo grins.

Chaeyoung jumps in and hugs her unnie once the two Japanese girls make room for the short web slinger who wants to jump into a hug.

Nayeon extends her arm out to stop her “whoa I really don’t think we’re at that stage yet Chaeng.”

Chaeyoung just slaps the hand away and grins before pulling her unnie into a hug. “You know that maybe would have worked before but now I know how much of a softie you are!” 

Nayeon relents and melts into the hug while Tzuyu comes up right beside her and pats her on the back. “I got your back unnie.” She says in the most monotone voice she can, face completely serious before Nayeon turns to look at her and they both break into a smile. 

Dahyun is last and gets a small side hug as Nayeon didn’t wanna crush her friend's injured arm. “Don’t even think about wanting to go. Stay here and rest.”

Dahyun opens her mouth to protest but shuts it after Jihyo and Nayeon both shoot her a wanting look. 

“Fine.” Dahyun huffs. 

Nayeon looks around the room, surrounded by the people she cared about the most, a somewhat clear plan in her head to save Mina and for the first time in a week she feels hopeful. 

-

“Sorry but I’m going where to do what?” Nayeon starts as she exits her lab with Jeongyeon following close behind her. 

“Nidavellir. It’s a planet where dwarves live, the forge there has created some of the universe's most powerful weapons,” Jeongyeon raises her hammer and shows it off “like Mjolnir here.” 

“Okay I’m not convinced you aren’t just making these words and places up.” 

“Well it’s real! And we need to go there, they can help you outfit the armor with a few runes and magical enchantments to help against Dormammu.”

“And they just can’t come here to do that?” Nayeon says, her voice devoid of the sarcasm that was most likely needed for such a ridiculous ask.

Jeongyeon sighs in annoyance. Putting up with Nayeon’s antics was one thing, putting up with her antics while trying to convince her to go to a mystical forge in space to outfit her armor with magic was another thing entirely.

Though even Jeongyeon knew how ridiculous this was but she expected Nayeon would be more open to ideas about magic considering she’s dating one of the most powerful sorcerers and has picked up on and learned more than a handful of spells in Mina’s tome while searching for answers. 

It seems she was wrong or Nayeon was just being difficult. “You want a planet of dwarves to come here as opposed to you coming to them?” 

“Oh well if it’s going to be inconvenient for Dwarves then I guess no?” Nayeon's voice mirroring the sarcasm Jeongyeon had.

“Will you just come?”

Nayeon laughs, she wasn’t really opposed to the idea, she just simply wanted to push her best friend's buttons a bit more before agreeing. “Fine. But if they ask us to go on a quest to slay a dragon and return them to their home, I'm out and I'm leaving you there alone.”

“You know I can just use the bifrost to travel between here and there right?”

“The frostbite or whatever, yeah yeah. Let’s go.” 

Nayeon readies her brand new suit, one she's been working on to help her cast spells and decked out to help fight a mystical being. Jeongyeon raises her hammer and a beam of rainbow light crashes down from the sky and engulfs them both, scorching the grass they stood on as it disappears with the two friends gone as well. 

Sana had been lounging with Momo in the living room, headphones on as both women dozed in and out of sleep. The sounds wakes Sana up for a second, she looks around for the source but only finds the burnt grass and no sign of anyone else. Momo still unbothered, softly snoring.

“Must be the wind.” Sana leans back puts her headphones back in and dozes back off to sleep. 

-

The forge was incredible, the fire that stoked it was powered directly by the planet's sun. The armor and weapons made was unlike anything Nayeon had ever seen before, the sharpest blades and seemingly impenetrable shields were being heated and molded, molten hot steel burning thousands of degrees being poured into molds.

Sparks flew and searing hot liquid flowed as Nayeon walked down the incredible forge her mouth gaping as she watched the dwarves work. “Whoa this is amazing.” 

Nayeon hops from one forge to the next eyeing each one curiously and eagerly studying the technique used and the gear being created, she was like a kid in a candy store. 

Jeongyeon finds the oldest dwarf, the person who ran the forge, just the man she was looking for. 

Nayeon comments something about how the dwarf looks older than dirt and that he probably can’t lift the hammer or stoke the flames anymore. Jeongyeon elbows her roughly trying not to cause a galactic war because of her friends inability to shut her mouth.

“Ahh forge master.” Jeongyeon greets bowing in respect. 

The old dwarf ignores the greeting and crashes his hammer down hard on the anvil in front of him before looking up and meeting the two visitors' eyes, locking him with Nayeons. “Hard enough for you Im.” he greets gruffly. 

“You know me?” Nayeon questions as her eyebrow raises.

“How could we not?” The old dwarf snaps back before grinning right at Nayeon. “The heroics of the great Im Nayeon. Earth's greatest protector. Inventor of the great Iron Man suit. You’re quite popular even here among us dwarves.”

Nayeon was shades redder now and not because of the incredible heat in the forge. Hearing compliments also stoked her ego, but now hearing compliments from an ancient being who’s seems countless weapons and armor built had her soaring to new heights.

“Yes. It’s quite impressive for human work.” The dwarf laughs and Nayeon’s face visibly warps to a look of annoyance, just like that her soaring ego came crashing down and Jeongyeon was found unable to contain her laughter at the quick change of mood.

Nayeon pointedly looks at the dwarf before rolling her eyes choosing not to reply at his backhanded compliment.

Jeongyeon instead takes the lead when she finally stops laughing at her friends misery. “I assume you know why we’re here then?”

The old dwarf stops as his hammer was about to meet the hot steel for just a split second and continues on without looking with a slight hmph. “Yes, Humans are messing with things they know nothing about, awakening demons that should have been left locked away…” the forgeman spare them a glance and Nayeon sees the genuine fear and worry in the man's eyes, something she would never have expected to see in an ancient being that has most likely seen eons of conflict and danger.

Nayeon studied the man as she kept hammering as Jeongyeon spoke up. “Well in our defense we didn’t wake him, our friend just got fooled into it.” she says defending their honor though it doesn’t look particularly good for them at the moment.

He ignores the comment and keeps hammering away intent on not engaging the humans.

“I think the sword is bent the wrong way now.” Nayeon says breaking the dwarfs concentration and causing him to look at her with an unreadable expression before turning his attention to the anvil and seeing her words are true the sword was overhammered and bent. 

He sighs and drops the hammer. “You appear to be correct, human.” 

“Always am.” Nayeon says with a smile on her face and such conviction the dwarf may even believe it.

“So you want a magical what? Sword? Shield? Box to seal him in?”

Nayeon opens her mouth but Jeongyeon speaks first. “You can do that? Make a box to seal him in?” The excitement that they might have a real way of defeating him instead of Nayeon's plan of overwhelming a demonic ruler with pure strength evident in Jeongyeon’s voice.

“I made the first box.” He scoffs. “Made his stupid crown as well, it was meant to seal his power not amplify it. Unfortunately sealing him away a second time won’t be possible.” He stands up for the first time and towers a foot over both Jeongyeon and Nayeon. “You’ll need to defeat him and take the crown away from him. Seal it away. Hide it. Just keep it away from him.”

“Uh Jeong I thought dwarves are supposed to be like… tiny…” Nayeon says looking the old being up and down in awe completely ignoring his advice and choosing to dwell on the dwarfs towering stature. “He looks like he should be the starting center for Seoul’s basketball team…”

“How the hell was I supposed to know they are this tall, I’ve only read about them in books…” Jeongyeon defends as she's equally surprised how big the ancient being is. 

“Are you two going to argue or walk with me?” 

Nayeon and Jeongyeon hesitantly follow the weapons maker further into the forge where it got hotter and hotter. 

“God I didn’t dress right for this.” Nayeon complains as she slips her leather jacket that’s already got more than a few burn marks off her shoulders and ties it around her waist.

“It’s a forge what did you expect? Who the hell wears a designer jacket to forge armor on an alien planet?”

“Oh yes pardon the hell out of me for not knowing the proper dress code for a planetary forge. It's been so long since.. Hmmm I don't know” Nayeon stops for a second before smacking Jeongyeons arm “NEVER, I’ve never been to one so how was I supposed to-”

Before Nayeon can finish or Jeongyeon can snipe back at the insult the dwarf pushes massive double doors open and reveals a single forge ablaze with fire blue flame that scorches the air around them. The fire and room surrounded by an aura neither girl can place but its powerful. 

“Whoa…” Nayeon lets out and Jeongyeon nods in silence. She feels the same spark in the air, the same energy she felt when she first picked up the hammer and was found worthy. 

“Perceptive for a human.” The dwarf says realizing the two can sense the great power stored in the room, sealed away from even the greatest of beings. “Maybe you are worthy of the hammer and perhaps Im isn't just an egotistical human.”

“I like to think I have many sides.” Nayeon replies nonchalantly as she takes a moment to look around the room. “So you’ll help us. Beat this demon ruler, get my girlfriend back, save the day, etc. I’ll even credit you when a movie gets made about us. Minor, small credit but a credit still.” her voice towing the line of sarcasm and a friendly joke as she does so well many other times.

The dwarf unexpectedly laughs and it carries through the room. 

He nods. “I’ll help. Under one condition. My people… we have been driven away from our original home…. A dragon that has hoarded my greatest treasures and weapons has taken residence and driven us out.” 

Both Nayeon and Jeongyeon listen intently as Nayeon has a slight hint of annoyance in her smirk, mostly at her friend because of course it wasn’t gonna be that easy. Now she has to do a fetch quest and slay a dragon not unlike all those boring fantasy role playing games Mina loved to play so much. Except Nayeon was gonna be taking part in the boring game now.

The dwarf continues on as Nayeon is in her own head. 

“So I need you to retrieve the magical forge hammer and slay the dragon. You can do it in any order.”

“God…. Why is this happening to me?” Nayeon whines to Jeongyeon who only has her mouth gaping wide.

“Wait so you aren’t short but the story about dragons is true? Like in the video games or movies? If Mina was here she would love this!” Jeongyeon exclaims taking in the ramifications of the revelation

The room is silent for a minute except the sound of magical blue flame burning on the forge. Then the old dwarf breaks into laughter and points at both their faces.”You should have seen the look on your faces.” He chokes out between rounds of loud laughter. “Seriously. You two are so gullible. Humans.” He says laughing. 

“I’m starting to hate this dwarf more than I hate you right now Jeong…” Nayeon lets out a low grumble.

Jeongyeon and the dwarf high five, still laughing about fooling Nayeon, and forgetting the fact Jeongyeon was nerding out about the prospect of seeing a dragon and slaying it to get a magical hammer, ironically like the one she has around her wrist. 

When the laughing does go down and Nayeon’s two tormentors have had their fun the dwarf clears his throat and extends his hand. “Armor.” he orders “I’ll imbue it with the same magical properties Dormammu uses to give you better protection and you should be able to hit him with your conventional weapons when using the armor.” 

Nayeon clicks a button on her wrist and the sleek new armor design forms around her body, she steps out of it and allows him to look. “Don’t change the paint.” She warns playfully. 

The dwarf ignored the comment and studied the suit. His eyes reflect a level of respect and perhaps maybe he’s a slight bit impressed. “Nanotechnology. And such a strong material to be able to quickly repair itself during a battle.” He nods. “Impressive.”

“This should only take a few minutes or so. Feel free to use the lounge outside, or watch a master at work.” He picks up the armor and brings it near the forge and picks up a heated blue glowing hammer and begins to work. 

-

“So you think the plan will work?” Chaeyoung asks head hanging off the couch as Tzuyu tosses another goldfish in the air to catch in her mouth. 

“I’m confident. Nayeon unnie seems to have a way with plans and things going her way.” Tzuyu says as she tosses another one in the air for Chaeyoung to catch.

“Hmm. It’s dangerous though. Plus he’s a magical being. Not some arms dealer or like crime syndicate we normally take down. Those guys are easy since we have powers..” Momo shoots a playful look at Tzuyu “well most of us..” 

“Hey!” Chaeyoung says incredulously as she tosses a throw pillow at Momo who was sitting on the opposite side of the living room on another couch with Sana cuddled into her. 

Before any more arguments can be made Jihyo walks enters in a bad mood and takes another sofa all to herself and slumps down.  _ How many couches did they really need here? _ Chaeyoung thinks to herself before shaking away the thought and everyone straightening around the room at Jihyo’s presence.

She finally opens her eyes at the disturbance and sees everyone sitting properly and not making a sound. Jihyo sits up and raises her eyebrow. “Uh what are you guys doing?” alluding to why everyone was acting rigid and proper around her, something she really isn't used to seeing her voice coming out a bit more commanding that she meant. She sighs before speaking again, softer this time. “I haven’t turned into some dictator or your commanding officer or boss while I was away you know… you idiots..” Jihyo says playfully this time.

Dahyun walks in from upstairs and sees them all gathered and jumps into Jihyo’s lap. “Yeah. She’s just a little grumpy right now. No need to walk on eggshells.” She coos tickling Jihyo’s chin embarrassing her girlfriend.

“Stop. I’m not being a grumpy.”

Sana chuckles at the interaction. “Nayeon did say you’d be in a bad mood.”

Dahyun giggles at the comment and slips comfortably to Jihyo’s side, holding her close as her girlfriend huffs. “That’s rich coming from the person who’s putting me in a bad mood.”

“Baby…” Dahyun pulls her tight getting a ‘hmph’ from her girlfriend.

“Those two idiots decide to leave me here without saying anything and go on a space adventure…” she whines and the whole room lightens in mood, partly due to how ridiculous she was being and partly because of how adorably petty Jihyo was being.

“Don’t be mean. They were in a rush.” Dahyun reasons. 

“Stop making sense. I wanna be petty. I mean seriously. They just up and leave without a goodbye. What if I wanted to go? I’m back for one day and they just leave?! I miss them…” Jihyo all but whines now.

“You just called them idiots.” Tzuyu says bluntly eliciting giggles from everyone not named Jihyo.

“But they are my idiots….” Jihyo pouts, her face red as she hides it in the crook of Dahyun’s neck not wanting to be exposed anymore that she already was.

Dahyun laughs and nuzzles into the touch. “See. Just a grumpy mess.” 

-

“Uh. Okay you literally hammered this thing once.” Nayeon says as she inspects the armor noticing a faint glow and aura of power she can’t exactly describe right now. 

“Well if I used more magic your puny human body couldn’t handle it so….” The dwarf replies back gruffly.

“Errr okay but one hammer of magic is fine?” Nayeon asks worries about her puny human body after his comments.

“Generally speaking….” 

“I’m gonna die in my own suit of armor…” Nayeon says dejectedly before Jeongyeon drags her along towards the entrance they came from. 

“He’s kidding.” Jeongyeon makes a point to glare at the forge master. 

The dwarf coughs and nods. “Ah. Yes. Kissing of course. A joke. Like the dragon…”

“Here. I have some other things I worked on while waiting.” The dwarf hands them a bow and a quiver full of glowing arrows each with differing abilities and shields that have the same blue glow as Nayeon’s armor and finally he slips into Nayeon’s hand a small intricate looking box and gives her a knowing look.

“For your archer friend and the shield tossing one.” 

Both Nayeon and Jeongyeon nod in approval and take the items with them uttering out their thanks. 

“Come. I’ll walk you both out.”

The three make their way past the searing forges and molten steel and head back up the entrance. Not a word spoken between the three as Nayeon quietly observes each anvil and working dwarf with curious eyes still impressed at how amazing the forge was.

“And this is where we part humans.”

“Thank you for your help.” Jeongyeon bows in courtesy before elbowing Nayeon to do the same. “I’m not doing it, but thanks for the help and showing me the forge. It was a cool experience. Hopefully the armor's magic doesn’t kill me.”

“It won’t. Your will is strong for a human, I’m sure it won’t drive you insane.” A faint hint of a smile can be seen on the dwarfs face. 

“That’s comforting to know…” Nayeon nods. “And thank you. I have someone I really care about counting on me, she’s the reason my will is so strong I’m sure.”

Jeongyeon snickers interrupt the two. “Are you two having a moment? Should I leave?” 

Nayeon ignores her best friend turned lighting god and gives a head nod to the ancient being. “See ya around.”

“The worlds counting on you two.” 

“I know. No pressure right?” 

Jeongyeon raises her hammer to summon the rainbow beam but Nayeon pulls her arm down before it can come. “I almost puked last time. I’m doing the magical circle thing Mina does.”

Nayeon slips her golden sling ring on and focuses herself. Concentrating on where she wants to take them. She moves her arm in a circular motion and golden sparks begin to form before it opens up to a full portal. 

“Mina would be so proud.” Nayeon claps happily before snatching Jeongyeon’s hand and dragging them through and the portal closes. 

“Nayeon what the hell? This isn’t home.” Jeongyeon screams over the sound of violently crashing waves, her voice straining to be louder than the sound of the ocean both now drenched in water.

Nayeon has teleported them to the some small rock formation barely enough to fit two in the middle of the ocean with a heavy storm surrounding them. 

“Uh… okay this was. Hang on…. I can fix this.” Nayeon concentrates again with the waves crashing and Jeongyeon shouting at her in the background.

“You idiot- you did this on purpose-“ Jeongyeon shouts as a crashing wave hits both of them and threatens to knock them off their feet. 

“Will you calm down! I can’t focus! Just hang on a sec…” Nayeon tries to ignore all outside noise and focus on creating a way out. 

“Hurry up! I feel a shark swimming around us, Nay.” 

A portal appears and they both jump through the hole and fall out of the sky and appear right where they started near the forge entrance, the old dwarf looking at them with confusion in his eyes. 

“Okay. That was an accident.” Nayeon squeals out, averting her eyes from Jeongyeon’s angry gaze who simply grabs her friend and raises her hammer to the sky as the rainbow beam engulfs them and takes them back to earth.

The old dwarf looks in disbelief and shakes his head. 

“We’re doomed.”

-

A crack of lightning followed by a blinding rainbow beam comes down from the sky and Nayeon and Jeongyeon appear with less than enthusiastic faces just outside the living room where the rest of the members gathered.

They stumble over each other and awkwardly meet the eyes of the rest of the girls. 

Nayeon laughs the awkwardness of the moment off. “I have gifts.” Holding up the quiver and arrow for Tzuyu and Jihyo’s new shield. 

Sana and Momo hold in their laughter while Tzuyu takes the bow and draws the string a few times and nods in approval while Nayeon hands Jihyo her shield who takes it and sets it aside focusing on her two friends' ridiculous situation.

“Did you guys go deep sea diving for this stuff?” Jihyo questions with her eyebrows raised.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” Nayeon says I’m a huff and Jeongyeon just rolls her eyes.

“ _ Mina would be so proud of me,”  _ Jeongyeon mimics Nayeon “my ass. You tried to get us killed by sharks!”

“I didn’t!” Nayeon defends as they both walk side by side back inside the living room as Chaeyoung appears with towels for her unnies. “It was an accident. You distracted me!” 

“Okay maybe I’m actually glad I didn’t go wherever these two idiots went.” Jihyo whispers next to Sana and Momo.

“Wait Unnie where’s my present? Tzuyu got one!” 

Nayeon shoots Jeongyeon a look asking for help but her friends simply ignores it and heads towards the bathroom to shower off the smells of salt water and annoyance. 

“....you have my credit card right? Just buy whatever you want with that.” Nayeon quickly says, patting Chaeyoung’s head and heading upstairs to her own shower.

Chaeyoung whines once Nayeon was out of earshot “.....but I wanted a gift…” Tzuyu laughs and pulls her girlfriend back on the couch.

“So is anyone gonna ask where the hell they went and why they look like a pissy married couple?” Momo asks looking between Jihyo and Chaeyoung.

“It’s Nayeon and Jeongyeon. What did you expect? Never a boring moment between them.” Sana laughs out before her face turns solemn. “Do you guys think they went to Atlantis or something?” 

“Don’t be ridiculous Sana!” Jihyo scoffs. “I think it’s more likely they pushed each other into a pool or something.”

“Or tried to drown each other.” Tzuyu says flatly and the whole room lights up in laughter before she’d smirks and joins them. 

-

“So how was deep sea diving?” Jihyo starts, teasing her two friends as everyone is gathered in the living room discussing the plan. 

Nayeon and Jeongyeon sat next to each other with cups of hot cocoa her taller friend with a blanket draped over her shoulders and Nayeon with the cloak over hers.

Nayeon's face twists in pain and pulls away as she burns her tongue on the hot chocolatey drink “Don’t start with me Park.” She groans, blowing on her tongue. “The cloak is whiny enough about me not to take it.”

“ _ What you get for ditching me. _ ” Jihyo mutters under her breath with a satisfied smile on her face.

“So everyone down with the plan?” Jeongyeon asks while dipping a marshmallow into her hot chocolate and taking a bite.

“Well. I don’t exactly like our odds going into his home turf blind but we don’t exactly have a ton of choices. Mina is what’s stopping him from invading our planet and she’s out there fighting alone. We leave her and he’ll come for us this way we at least put up a fight.” Momo says almost too quietly for someone laying out the odds of their mission.

“Leaving Mina isn’t an option. Not for me.” Nayeon says sternly and everyone in the room nods in agreement. 

“We’ll get her back.” Jihyo reassures Nayeon, Dahyun who's sitting next to her nodding and sending her a thumbs up. 

“Yeah. We’re coming for this guy and no one's gonna stop us from getting Mina back!” Chaeyoung proudly shouts with Tzuyu trying to keep her voice down. 

“We got your back Unnie.” Tzuyu softly says looking at Nayeon’s whose eyes are turning watery at the sentiments.

Sana never shying away from contact jumps at the chance and swallows Nayeon into a hug who struggles to keep her hot chocolate from scorching her and Sana. “Wait Sana hang on-“ 

Her whines are ignored as Jeongyeon saves her by grabbing the cup from Nayeon’s hand before she falls into the couch with Sana holding tight.

“We’ll get our Minari back Nayeonieee. Then you two can go back to being disgustingly sweet with each other.” Sana squeals and nuzzles into Nayeon’s not unlike a puppy nuzzling it’s owner.

Nayeon doesn’t have the energy to fight or push Sana away and pretend like the gesture doesn’t warm her cheeks and help defrost her body from the impromptu ocean dive she did not too long ago. 

“Thank you…. I don’t know what I would do without you guys.”

“Lost probably.” Jihyo adds on and Jeongyeon seconds, the girls laugh and for at least tonight almost everything feels right. Almost.

-

Everyone had gathered around in Mina’s sanctum. Jeongyeon and Jihyo looked around the room and saw ancient books lining one shelf while the next was trinkets and mementos on a shelf. A timeline of their relationship from the rough start to the present. The two want to mock Nayeon or call them saps but deep down something about their two friends' relationship, something about their unbreakable, almost destiny like bond made the couple admirable. 

“Okay guys. Visors on. Make sure you're linked to each other and homebase.” Nayeon says as everyone begins to check their helmets and goggles for displays. “Everyone linked?”

The cloak nods in acknowledgement and as a reminder that it's there, then Nayeon's head up display screen lights up and green lights appear next to each member indicating they are all linked. “Alright Dahyun all set?”

She taps on the tablet and nods. “Yeah all good. I’ll head over to the command center and work from there.” Dahyun walks up to Jihyo and pulls her into a hug. “Be careful and make sure they all come back alive okay?” 

Jihyo melts into the touch and pulls her closer. “I’ll be back.” She pecks her grilfriend softly on the cheek. “Someones gotta be responsible for them.”

“How come you aren’t sweet like that to me?” Sana turns and whines to Momo and Chaeyoung asks the same of Tzuyu, both girlfriends going red and pretending to push them away earning smacks on their arms.

Nayeon pulls Jeongyeon close and holds her tight in a hug. “What are you doing?...” the taller girl asks, not attempting to pull away. 

“Everyone was being sweet with each other and having a moment so I want one too.” Nayeon whispers not pulling away until Jeongyeon finally hugs her back.

Jeongyeon chuckles. “Mina can’t come back soon enough.” 

Dahyun wishes them luck and offers a bright smile before turning and heading out of the room.

“Ready then?” Nayeon raises the green orb. 

Tzuyu checks her bow one last time, Jihyo nervously taps on her shield while focusing herself, Sana and Momo are still bickering before they realizes eyes were on them and check their regulators and suits, Jeongyeon puts an arm on Nayeon’s shoulder for assurance, and Chaeyoung is doing backflips to stretch because well, she can. 

“I guess that’s a yes.”

The orb glows green seemingly on Nayeon’s command and the light engulfs the room in a green hue with a soft hum, energy radiates from it and it feels like the orb is lulling them into a false sense of safety. 

“Whoa.” Chaeyoung says amazed at the sight.

“Okay. Focus. Nayeon. Focus.” She shuts her eyes and pulls the memory from deep down, the connection, the emotions she felt when she was with Mina in the other realm, she draws from it, concentrates every fibre of her being into it, flashing memories of her time there come and go, and then she opens her eyes. The orb seems to stop time.

The room hums to life then in the blink of an eye, a portal opens and slowly drags them all into the void. Nayeon thinks she hears Jeongyeon mutter a  _ ‘Please don’t take me into the ocean with sharks.’ _ and Chaeyoung definitely lets out a  _ ‘I don’t feel too good.’  _ then Nayeon feels the orb in her hands, the portal closes and everything fades to black.

-

Mina was starting to lose ground. Every attack had been blocked by the demon, her movements being read with precision. In the heat of the fight she fails to notice the amulet around her neck now open and glowing a green hue.

A fireball is hurled her way and Mina is half a step too late as it crashes to the rocks right next to her, the impact hurling her body forward and tumbling into the ground. 

“That was a cheap shot.” Mina coughs out blood with her words.

“You’ll see this one coming.” The demon appears right in front of her, boots scorching the ground, Mina looks up and sees the monster smirk. He raises his hand and with a flick turns a rock formation into razor sharp spikes. 

“I’ll be sure to tell your friends about your failures.” 

Mina attempts to block but is again too slow this time he kicks with her ferocious force and sends her hurling right towards the rock formation that would impale her, Mina shuts her eyes waiting for the end. The green hue glows brighter and engulfs her, suddenly she feels a warmth around her that she knew can only be from one person, a smile plasters her face and she opens her eyes and it meets the warm bright orbs she knew would be there when she needed most. 

Nayeon had her arms around her, the armor around her girlfriend didn't matter as she felt her warmth regardless, felt the unmistakable reassurance and strength only she could give. 

“You’re late Nayeon.” 

Nayeon's helmet retracts itself and her smile is evident right up to her eyes as she looks down on Mina. “I think I’m right on time.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated. This chapter I felt was a bit slow but hopefully it was enjoyable to read. Lemme know what you think. 
> 
> Next time.
> 
> They fight for their right to party and Nayeon makes the sacrifice.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think on Twitter if you like, I love feedback. I am @/hoodienayeon on twitter.


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